[plug] Crypt/Decrypt?

[Tamara Thompson]

Oh, I didn't realize that pgp did more than key encryption for communications.  hmmmm... Thanks. 

Why would I want to encrypt my files?  yeegads.  These days?  I don't want my journal or my poetry naked to the world when I run as root, just cause I'm too busy and barbie to get the 'tamara' account working with ppp.  

Why?  There is no 'why'.  <laugh>

But still, sure was easy having a distrib with an encrypt prgm included with it.  Maybe I need to go zen the simplicity of this.  

Tamara

<<< Mike Holland <myk at golden.wattle.id.au>  5/ 1  3:13a >>>
> If I were you I'd be asking myself why you want to encrypt your files. 

To avoid any legal repercussions?

> Assuming no one else knows your password and your permissions are set
> correctly, there is no need.

But anyone with physical access to your computer can read it, e.g.
by booting from floppy.
Passwords only protect from electronic access.

>   If provides very little, if any, protection at all - I suspect

Thats true. You dont need the NSA to crack the crypt algorithm.

> So if you really want to encrypt your files securely (and you feel you
> need to) then my suggestion is to look at something in the general
> vicinity of PGP.

Get PGP from ftp://ftp.pgpi.com/pub/pgp 
	http://www.ifi.uio.no/pgp/

Then "pgp -c <filename>" to encrypt. It will prompt you for a passphrase.


Mike Holland <mike at golden.wattle.id.au>            Perth, Australia.
                          --==--
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
                -- Rich Kulawiec