Web security is one of the most important factors for everyone today, especially for communications through the network where a large amount of data and very important information are constantly being shared. For this, it is recommended to make use of PGP, being this one of the most popular and used encryption software around the world.
PGP, also known as Pretty Good Privacy, is today perhaps the best data encryption software that can be found in the web market , it will make sure to protect your communications over the Internet , among many other uses that you can give it, but its main function is to encrypt and decrypt communications through emails , thus preventing their content from being modified along the way.
Among some of the other functions that can be used in this software created by Phil Zimmermann is to guarantee the security of disk partitions and directories. In accordance with all this, here we are going to show you what are the main benefits that you can obtain with PGP and how you can start installing it on your Mac computer to increase your privacy and security in it.
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What are the benefits of using PGP on MacOS computers?
This software known as Pretty Good Privacy in English and which in Spanish means “ Pretty Good Privacy ” has become one of the most important encryption software in the world , and it is that this creation by Phil Zimmermann is characterized by offering a large number of advantages to its users, especially those who constantly have to share data through email or any other means of communication.
Taking into account the importance of using PGP, here we are going to show you the main benefits that this tool offers you:
- Pretty Good Privacyoffers a combined use of symmetric and asymmetric encryption.
- The PGPis characterized by offering its users the possibility of safely sharing any type of information or cryptographic keys over the Internet.
- By offering a hybrid system, Pretty Good Privacyis able to profit from both the speed of symmetric encryption and the security of asymmetric cryptography.
- It also offers what digital signaturesare , which guarantee greater protection and integrity of all the data that you send to other users through the network.
- Thanks to the OpenPGP protocol, what is the emergence of a much more competitive and standardized environment was allowed , for which PGP solutions are now provided by organizations and companies.
- All Pretty Good Privacy programsthat comply with the OpenPGP standards are compatible with each other. Therefore, the programs and keys generated by one program can be used in another without incompatibility issues .
Learn step by step how to install and use PGP on your MacOS
If you are a Mac user and you want to start using PGP on your computer then it will be necessary to use three programs that will allow all this to work correctly, in these cases it is GnuPG, Mozilla Thunderbird and Enigmail . It is worth mentioning that GnuPG is the program that is responsible for encrypting and decrypting the content sent through your mail .
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While Thunderbird is an email client that allows you to read and write your messages and Enigmail is a plugin that will make everything work properly. In order to carry out this procedure, all you need is a Mac computer with an Internet connection and an email account. This process usually takes around 30 to 60 minutes so it can be a bit lengthy.
Having all this clear we can start with the procedure, to do this, follow each of the steps that we are going to teach you below:
Get GnuPG
- The first thing will be to download GnuPG on the Mac computer, you can download it from its official website or from this post.
Download GnuPG MacOS
- When you have entered its main page,you must select the download link right next to OS X to start downloading the GPG installer.
- After this you will be redirected to the SourceForge downloadpage , from there you will see the download percentage bar . Here you simply have to wait for it to run 100% .
Download Mozilla Thunderbird
The next thing will be to download Mozilla Thunderbird , to do this, go to its official site and click on the green “Free Download” button. The website will automatically detect your language in use, in case you want to download it with another language then you must click on “System and languages” and from there you make your choice.
Download Mozilla Thunderbird MacOS
Install DnuPG
- Now you must continue with the GPG installation, in this case click on the download icon in the Dock and then select the GnuPG-2.11-002.dmg file .
- Then a window will appear on the screen where the installation progresswill be shown .
- When this progress bar is complete, a GnuPGwindow will open where you can see the installation file and other files , in this case double-click on “Install.pkg”.
- In the new window that appears there, you will begin with the installation, for this select the option “Continue”.
- GPG willbe installed as a system package, so you must enter your username and password to install it, once you enter this information you must select “Install software”.
- After this, a window will appear where it will notify you that the installation has been successful, there select the close button.
Install Mozilla Thunderbird
- To carry out this installation you must click on the downloadicon in the Dock and then on the Thunderbird 45.20.0.dmg file.
- Then the progress windowwill be shown .
- When this window reaches 100%, a screen will automatically open with the Mozilla Thunderbird iconand a link in your applications folder, here you must drag the browser icon to the applications folder.
- Again a window will appear with the progress bar,once it is completed it will close.
- Inside this folder you must select the files “GnuPG 2.1” and “Thunderbird”simultaneously and execute them mounted.
Prepare to install Enigmail
- When you go to access Mozilla Thunderbirdfor the first time, your Mac system will ask you if you are sure to open it , you must bear in mind that this browser has been downloaded from a completely secure site such as org , so you must select the “Open” button .
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- This browser can be integrated with your Mac’s address book,but approving or not approving this option is only up to you.
- When this browser is running for the first time, a confirmationwindow will appear on the screen where it will ask you about some default settings , in this case it is best to select the “Set as default” option .
- When the browser islaunched for the first time on your Mac , you will be asked if you want to open a new email address , in this case you must select “Skip this and use my existing email address . ” The next thing will be to configure it to be able to send and receive email through the Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook servers .
Installing Enigmail
At this point you have to install Enigmail , as mentioned at the beginning of the post it is an extension so its installation will be different from the two programs mentioned above .
For this, it will be necessary to follow each of these steps:
- The first thing you should do is enter Mozilla Thunderbirdand select its menu , for this you must click on the three horizontal lines located in the upper right part of your screen, in the menu that appears there you must select “Add-ons” .
- Here a new “Add-ons”window will open. In the search box located at the top right, you must type Enigmail and press “Enter.”
- As you can see, “Enigmail”will appear first in the list, there you must click on the “Install” button.
- There you will see a status bar where you can see the installation level that the extension has. Once installed, you will be asked to restart the browser so that the add-on can be activated, for this you must click on “Restart now”.
- Once you rebooted the Mozilla browserwill open a new additional window so you can start the process configuration of the extension. Here you must click on the option “Start configuration now” and then on “Next”.
- In the new window that appears, you must indicate that you want to perform a standard configurationand click “Next” again.
As part of the configuration it is necessary that you take into account that for security reasons it will be necessary to deactivate HTML , since many of the attacks received in Enigmail come from HTML when it is activated , so it is considered dangerous in emails .
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Therefore, the most advisable thing in this case is to deactivate it, for this you must follow these steps:
- Again you must select the three horizontal lines of Mozilla Thunderbird forthis menu to be displayed.
- In the options that are available to you, you must select the item “View”.
- Subsequently, you must select the option “Body of the message as”and in the menu that appears below, choose “ Plain text”.
In this way you will be deactivating what is the HTML of the email , it must be taken into account that when deactivating this function it may cause you some usability problems , since some of the attached files will not appear .
However, it must be remembered that this step is not mandatory, but it will undoubtedly help you to be less vulnerable and make your data and communications much more secure. Therefore, it is up to each of the users whether they take the risk of using email with HTML or not .
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Create a public key and a private key
- If you have already created an email account then Enigmail will choose the account that you have previously configured, in case you have not done so you will have to configure it. In this case, the first thing you should do is enter a secure password for what will be your private key and then click “Next”.
- It is important that you bear in mind that your password will have an expiration date, when this happens all the users who previously used it will stop doing it to encrypt any new email sent to you . It is possible that you will not receive any notification about this so you should be very attentive to when is the expiration date of the same, since this will allow you to address this problem in advance.
If you want to choose to extend the useful life of your existing key , then you can assign a new one and a subsequent expiration date , it is also possible to replace it with a new key by creating another from scratch. Whichever option you choose, it will be necessary to contact the people you are communicating with so that you can be completely sure that they have received the updated password correctly.
If you do not know how you can see the expiration date of your Thunderbird key, then you will need to follow these steps that we will indicate below:
- The first thing will be to access the “Enigmail”menu and there select “Key Management”.
- Now you must look for your key in the “Enigmail Key Management”once you find it you must select it by double clicking on it.
- Then a new window will open, in the “Expiration” sectionyou will be able to see the expiration date of the key , if you want to set a new expiration date then you must select the option “Change” right next to the due date.
- It is important that after changing the public key youshare it with your contacts or publish it on a key server .
- The extension will be responsible for generating the keyand when it is completed a new window will open requesting that the “Revocation Certificate” be generated .
The revocation certificate is extremely important in these cases, so it is essential to be able to keep it in a safe place , since with it it will be the only way to invalidate the private key and public key in case it is lost or you steal . Furthermore, it is recommended that both the key and the certificate be stored in different locations, even if these two data are not found on the same computer.
As alternatives, it is recommended to save the revocation certificate on a CD or external USB storage memory and keep it in a safe place. In the case that you only choose to delete your public key or private key, this will not invalidate it , so other users can send you encrypted messages that you will not be able to decrypt.
In order to generate your certificate, you must click on the “Generate certificate” button and follow these steps:
- Later a new window will open where you are asked to add the passwordyou used to create the PGP key , once added click “Ok”.
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- In the next window you must select in which location you want to save the revocation certificate, here it is important to take into account everything mentioned above, here you can save it on your computer or use an external storage device that is intended only for it . It is important that both the key and the certificate are not stored on the same computer for security measures.
- When you have decided where to save it, simply click “Save.”
- Enigmail will give you more information related to how to store the revocation file ,here you must select “Ok”.
- After this, the process of generating a private and public keywill have finished satisfactorily, simply click on “Finish” to close said window.
PGP vs GPG Which is the best tool to improve privacy?
Surely you may be wondering which of these two tools is better to improve privacy in your communications over the Internet, both are computer programs that have been developed to protect what are communications over the Internet and are made through of electronic mail, being this one of the main means of communication in the whole world.
However, it should be mentioned that emails are not currently the safest means for this, since they can be easily violated by experts, who can modify all their internal content, violating the originality of the emails . They are also easily stored and read by people with special abilities in this area.
According to all these vulnerabilities and considering that valuable and private information is shared through emails, there is a possibility of improving their security already through the GPG and PGP, since both programs have been created with this end. Either of them will help you to maintain the privacy of the emails , for this they offer what is the encryption of messages where only authorized people can access them.
However, here are some differences between the two so that you can decide which of them is the best alternative for you:
- PGPis known as Pretty Good Privacy , while GPG is known as the “GNU Privacy Guard”.
- PGPis a proprietary encryption solution from
- GPGis another encryption solution but it follows the OpenPGP standards and provides an interface so that users have the ability to easily encrypt each of their files .
- A free versionof the Pretty Good Privacy program can be downloaded from the PGP International home page, but it is restricted for personal use and not for commercial purposes.
- GPGis a free program that has digital signature and email encryption, it can be downloaded for both commercial and personal use.
- PGPis an original program freeware with copyright , while the GPG is rewriting PGP.
- Pretty Good Privacyis characterized by using the RSA algorithm and the IDEA encryption algorithm, while the GPG uses the NIST AES standard, Advanced Encryption .
