PGpõhised

PGPõhised refers to methods and technologies based on Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a computer program and an associated encryption standard that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communications. PGP was invented by Philip Zimmermann in 1991. The core functionality of PGP is to encrypt and decrypt messages, files, and data. It utilizes a combination of public-key cryptography and symmetric-key cryptography to achieve this.

In essence, PGPõhised systems leverage the principles of public-key cryptography, where each user has a pair of keys: a public key and a private key. The public key can be freely distributed and is used to encrypt messages intended for the recipient. The private key, however, must be kept secret by the owner and is used to decrypt messages that were encrypted with their corresponding public key. This allows for secure communication without the need to pre-share a secret key.

PGPõhised applications are used for email encryption, secure file storage, and digital signatures. Digital signatures, in particular, are a crucial aspect, allowing recipients to verify the authenticity and integrity of a message or file. By signing data with their private key, the sender creates a unique digital signature that can be verified by anyone using the sender's public key. If the data has been tampered with, the signature verification will fail. The OpenPGP standard, an open-source implementation, has further propagated the use of PGP principles across various platforms and applications.