User Guide

PGP Personal Privacy
190 McAfee Office
Basic steps for using PGP Personal Privacy
Th is sect ion tak es a quick look at the p rocedures y ou normally follow in t he
course of using P GP Per sonal Privacy.
1. InstallP GP on your computer. Referto the Individual Product Requirements
in Chapter 2 for complete installation instructions.
2. Create a private and public key pair.
Before you ca n begin using PGP, yo u need t o generate a key pair. A PGP
key pairis composed of a privatekey to which only youh ave access and a
public ke y that you can copy and make freely available to everyone with
whom you exchange information. You have the option of creating a new
key pair immediately after you have finished the PGP installation
procedure, or yo u can do s o at any time by opening the PGPkeys
application.
3. Exchange public keys w ith others. After yo u h ave created a key pair , yo u
can begin corresponding w ith other PGP users. You will need a copy of
theirpublic key and t hey will needyours. Your public keyis justa block of
text, so it’s quite easy to trade k eys with someone. You can include your
public key in an email me ssage, copy it to a file, or post it on a public or
corporate key server where anyone can get a cop y when they need it.
4. Va lidate publ ic keys.
Once you have a copy of someone’s public key, you can add it to your
public keyring. Yo u s hould then c he ck to make sure that the key has not
been tampered withandthat itreallybelongsto t hepur po rted owner.You
do this by comparing the unique fing erprint on your copy of someone’s
public key to the fingerprint on that pers on’s original key. When you are
sure that you have a valid pub lic key, you sign it to indicate that you feel
thekeyissafetouse.Inaddition,youcangranttheownerofthekeyalevel
of trustindicatinghow muchconfidenceyou have inthat personto vouch
for the authenticity of someone else’s public key.
5. En crypt a nd sign yo ur email and files .
After you have generated your key pair a nd hav e exchang ed public keys,
you can be gin encrypting a nd signing email messages and files .
• Ifyouareusinganemailapplicationsupportedbytheplug-ins,y ou
can encrypt and sign your messages by selecting the appropriate
options from your application’s tool bar.