Simple Steps to Data Encryption

Chapter 1

Using Gnu Privacy Guard

Bob lives in Sylvania, a tiny nation ruled by a dictator who forbids all printed dissent and criticism. However, emboldened on a visit to the United States, Bob wrote his own brief editorial, on a cocktail napkin while sitting at the airport bar, waiting to board his plane home. It begins:

Free Sylvania!

Those two words alone could send Bob to the Sylvanian gulag if discovered back home. As the exhilaration of creation wears off, Bob downloads and installs Gnu Privacy Guard¹ to encrypt his work. He’s been told it’s good for encryption, and it’s free, so why not?

Bob’s plane leaves Logan in 15 minutes, and when he starts reading the tutorial for GnuPG, he panics: it goes on at great length about public key encryption ...