Latest revision as of 12:30, 5 June 2014

The guide has launched at EmailSelfDefense.FSF.org and this page is now deprecated

Infographic will go here

Global intro paragraph

The goal of this guide is to make it easy to set up email encryption on your computer. Once you've finished the guide, you'll be able to send and receive emails that are coded to make sure that a surveillance agent or thief can't intercept your email and read it.

This isn't something you'd do with every email, or even every day. Rather, it's a tool to have handy when you need to send something sensitive.

You'll also be able to sign emails to show reliably that they are from you. Though the need for signing may be less obvious, you'll actually do it more often.

All you need is a computer with GNU/Linux or Windows and an Internet connection. You can use your existing email account for this without affecting it.

Section 1: Get the pieces

Before starting, you'll need any one of these desktop email programs installed on your computer: FossaMail (for Windows), Icedove (for Debian GNU/Linux), Thunderbird (for other GNU/Linux flavors, Apple OS X), or any other program based on one of these. If you are already using one of these, you can skip to Step 1.b.

An email program lets you read and write mail without using a Web browser, and provides special features that are hard to find in email systems you use in a Web browser. Using an email program doesn't mean that you have to make a new email account -- most people just connect an existing email account from a Web email service (like GMail) or their workplace to their email program. You can think of it as another way to access the same email account.

Step 1.a: Set your email program up with your email account (if it isn't already)

Open your email program and follow the wizard that sets it up with your email account.

Troubleshooting

My email program can't find my account or isn't downloading my mail.
- Answer coming soon

Step 1.b: If you are using Windows, download gpg4Win

Download it, run the executable and click through the installation wizard with all the default settings. You don't need to run the program once it's installed.

Step 1.c: Install the Enigmail plugin for your email program

In your email program's menu, select Add-ons (it may be in the Tools section). Make sure Extensions is selected on the left. Do you see Enigmail? if so, skip this step.
If not, search "Enigmail" with the search bar in the upper right. You can take it from here. Restart your email program when you're done.

Troubleshooting

I can't find the menu
- In many new email programs, it's represented by an image of three stacked horizontal bars.

Section 2: Make your keys

Intro text

To use the GnuPG system, you'll need a public key and a private key (known together as a keypair). Each is a long string of randomly generated numbers that are unique to you. Your public and private keys are linked together by a special mathematical function.

Step 2.a: Make a keypair

In your email program's menu, select OpenPGP -> Setup Wizard. You don't need to read the text in the window that pops up unless you'd like to, but it's good to read the text on the later screens of the wizard.
On the second screen, titled "Signing," select "No, I want to create per-recipient rules for emails that need to be signed."
Use the default options until you reach the screen titled "Create Key"
On the screen titled "Create Key," pick a strong password! Your password should be at least 8 characters and include at least one lower case and upper case letter and at least one punctuation mark. Don't forget it, or all this work will be wasted!
The program will take a little while to finish the next step, the "Key Creation" screen. While you wait, do something else with your computer, like watching a movie or browsing the Web. The more you use the computer at this point, the faster the key creation will go.
When the OpenPGP Confirm screen pops up, select Generate Certificate and choose to save it in a safe place on your computer (we recommend making a folder called "Revocation Certificate" in your home folder and keeping it there. You'll learn more about the revocation certificate in Section 5. The setup wizard will ask you to move it onto an external device, but that isn't necessary at this moment.

After creating your key, the Enigmail set-up wizard automatically uploaded it to a keyserver, an online computer that makes everyone's keys available through the Internet.

Troubleshooting

Enigmail detected an existing key on my computer
- Answer coming soon
I can't find the OpenPGP menu
- In many new email programs, it's represented by an image of three stacked horizontal bars.

Section 3: Try it out!

Now you'll try a test correspondence with a computer program named Adele, which knows how to use encryption. You'd follow the same steps if communicating with a real person. Then you'll send your first signed email to a real person!

Step 3.a: Download Adele's public key from a keyserver

In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management -> Keyserver -> Search for Keys.
In the "Search for keys" field, type adele-en@gnupp.de. That's Adele's email address.
Check the first result (Key ID starting with 9) and hit OK.

Step 3.b: Send a test encrypted email

Write a new email in your email program, addressed to adele-en@gnupp.de. Make the subject "Encryption test" or something similar and write something in the body.
Before sending the email, click the icon of the key in the bottom right of the composition window (it should turn yellow). This tells Enigmail to encrypt the email with the key you downloaded in the last step.
When Adele receives your email, she will use her private key to decrypt it, then fetch your public key from a keyserver and use it to encrypt a response to you.

Since you encrypted this email with Adele's public key, Adele's private key is required to decrypt it. Adele is the only one with her private key, so no one except her -- not even you -- can decrypt it.

It may take two or three minutes for Adele to respond. In the meantime, you might want to skip ahead and check out the Use it well section of this guide.
When you receive Adele's email and open it, Enigmail will automatically detect that it is encrypted with your public key, and then it will use your private key to decrypt it.

Notice the bar that Enigmail shows you with information about the status of Adele's key.

Step 3.c: Send a test signed email to a friend

Write a new email in your email program, addressed to a friend. If you want, tell them about this guide!
Before sending the email, click the icon of the pencil in the bottom right of the composition window (it should turn yellow). This tells Enigmail to sign the email with you private key.
After you click send, Enigmail will ask you for your password. It will do this any time it needs to use your public key.

Section 4: Learn the Web of Trust

Email encryption is a powerful technology, but it has a weakness; it requires a way to verify that a person's keypair is actually theirs. Otherwise, there would be no way to stop an attacker from making an email address with your friends name, creating a keypair to go with it and impersonating your friend. They would then be able to impersonate your friend by signing messages with the private key they'd created, and decrypt messages intended for your friend with the public key.

That's why the programmers that developed email encryption created keysigning and the Web of Trust. Keysigning allows a person to publicly state that they trust that a public key belongs to a specific person. To sign someone's public key, you need to use your private key, so the world will know that it was you.

Step 4.a: Sign a key

In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management.
Right click on Adele's public key and select Sign Key from the context menu.
In the window that pops up, select "I will not answer" and click OK
In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management -> Keyserver -> Upload Public Keys and hit OK.

You've just effectively said "I trust that Adele's public key actually belongs to Adele." This doesn't mean much because Adele isn't a real person. Before signing a real person's key, always make sure it actually belongs to them, and answer honestly in the window that pops up and asks "How carefully have you verified that the key you are about to sign actually belongs to the person(s) named above?"

It's important to take keysigning seriously because it will affect people beyond just you and the person who's key you are signing. If someone doubts that a key actually belongs to the person that is says it does, they can go on a keyserver and see the number of signatures that it has. The more it has, the more they are likely to trust it.

The Web of Trust takes this concept to the next level. It is a network of key signatures that is saved in keyservers on the Internet. It builds chains of trust between individuals that do not know each other by passing through others, a bit like the famous "six degrees of separation" game. You don't need to understand it in detail to use email encryption, but it will become a powerful tool if you become an advanced user.

Section 5: Use it well

When should I encrypt? When should I sign?

Everyone uses GnuPG a little differently. Encryption is most important for messages involving finances, personal information, politically sensitive conversations and anything else that you wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands. Signing is best for when you think there might be concern about your identity, or as a way of demonstrating that you know how to use GnuPG and will be able to decrypt emails. If you're already encrypting, there's no reason not to sign as well, to give the recipient added assurance that the message is from you.

If you're using your email program (or wherever you have GnuPG set up) often, we recommend that you sign all outgoing messages because it turns you into an ambassador for GnuPG. Anyone can read a signed email, so it doesn't matter if the recipient doesn't yet know how to use email encryption. The more you encrypt the better, but you won't be able to do so unless the recipient has a public key. However, if you've set it up for an email program on your computer, but you primarily use email through your phone, then you'll only want to fire up the email program and use GnuPG for special occasions. If this describes you, we recommend you use

Be wary of invalid keys

Coming soon.

Step: Make it part of your online identity

Start writing your key ID anywhere someone would see your email address. Add it to your email signature, social media profile, blog, Website, or business card.

Important: act swiftly if you lose your key

If you lose your private key or someone else gets ahold of it (say, by stealing your computer), it's important to revoke it immediately before someone else uses it to steal your identity. This guide doesn't cover how to revoke a key, but it only takes a minute. We recommend you Google it or seek help from a skilled friend. After you're done revoking, send an email to everyone with whom you usually use your key to make sure they know.

Section 6: Next steps

Switch to GNU/Linux
Share this guide and help a friend get started
Learn more about GPG
Learn more about free software and why it's more secure
Participate in a keysigning party

Keysigning parties are social events designed to build the Web of Trust. Participants match each others' photo IDs and Key IDs, and then get out their laptops and sign each other's public keys. They're a great way to meet likeminded people and learn about new privacy tools, as well as build up people's trust in your key. Look for keysigning at tech events, hackerspaces and nerdy parties.

Try other encryption technologies: OTR, encrypting your hard drive, Tor, link to surveillance collection in directory, or prism-break with free software filter, if that has been set up
Like programming? Contribute code to GnuPG or Enigmail.
Support the Free Software Foundation

FAQ

My key expired

Answer coming soon.

Who can read encrypted messages? Who can read signed ones?
My email program is opening at times I don't want it to open/is now my default program and I don't want it to be.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-=Random Notes=
+=The guide has launched at EmailSelfDefense.FSF.org and this page is now deprecated=
-* '''Really think about ways that this will be about making the fact that you use GPG part of your online identity, and make this a vector for driving people to the guide. For example, have people put their GPG key up on their blogs and social media sites, with a link (perhaps with logo, graphic, embed code, something cool) to our guide. Is there a good standard way to list this on your FB? Twitter? We can get people to do this even if they are already using GPG.'''
-* Audience: People who are excited about technology and involved in movements like ours, but don't already know how to use GPG. They are computer literate, though, and don't need their hands held through super basic stuff, like clicking next in a Wizard.
-* Think about licensing
-* How do we visually do the troubleshooting? The different operating systems?
-* Name ideas
-** Safe email 101
-** Encryption 101
-** Encrypt your email
-** Safe email
-* Make it clear that there are two different ways that "signing" is used.
-* For signing keys, you could say "and so, if you go on a keyserver and you see that someone has a lot of signatures on their key, you can probably trust them more, because someone has verified their identity." This segues well into an optional description of the need for the Web of Trust, starting with explaining the threat of someone making fake keys to sign their other fake key.
-* Why you shouldn't leak your private key: because then someone could both read your mail AND impersonate you
-* Does Enigmail automatically refresh keys?
-* The default is to import keys without verifying the fingerprint, "locally sign key" is not intuitive at all and to actually verify the fingerprint you need to click yet another button
-* Explain key loss
-* Explain the need to refresh (is this necessary when using Enigmail?
-* Explain expiration and making new keys
-* 2048 bit key with 5 year expiration date
-* Adele's key is 0x92AB3FF7 not 0x4D486CC8.
-* Explain encryption, then signing keys, then signing messages. Most people teach messages, then keys, but this order flows more naturally?
-* Rationale for technical recommendations that we make (like key size and which keyserver to use)
-* Links to more detailed descriptions of things on other pages (like how to use keyservers)
-* RSA versus DSA
-* Saving unencrypted drafts to servers, as per Micah Lee's email to liberationtech
-* Link to dedicated keyserver for people to use, run by us, so that we can track who is getting started through our campaign.
-* Other email client security settings, like in <https://securityinabox.org/en/thunderbird_security>
-* A section on verifying incoming email, like on <http://en.flossmanuals.net/thunderbird-workbook/receive-encrypted-mail/>. Hopefully this can just be worked in to the try it out section
-* Different ways of identifying keys.
-=Page elements=
+===Infographic will go here===
-* Infographic
-* Intro paragraph
-** Says it's great to do this with a friend, but we designed it so that it also works fine for one person.
-* Step-by-step guide
-* Next steps section
-===Infographic breakdown===
+===Global intro paragraph===
-[[GPG_guide/Infographics|See separate page]]
+The goal of this guide is to make it easy to set up email encryption on your computer. Once you've finished the guide, you'll be able to send and receive emails that are coded to make sure that a surveillance agent or thief can't intercept your email and read it.
-===Guide breakdown (based loosely on <https://www.enigmail.net/documentation/quickstart.php>)===
+This isn't something you'd do with every email, or even every day. Rather, it's a tool to have handy when you need to send something sensitive.
-''The idea is for the guide to be broken down into concise steps, with a focus on the actual steps, r===
-ather than in-depth explanations of why or how things work. The guide will have a series of sections, each with introductory text. Each section will have a series of steps, each with a number and concise but descriptive name, to make it easy to refer to different parts of it. Each step will have an FAQ-style troubleshooting section, and each entry in the troubleshooting will have a name and a body, which consists of help text. We need to think about the visual presentation of the versions for different operating systems and of the troubleshooting. One possibility is tabs for the operating system and expanding boxes that start collapsed for troubleshooting. Troubleshooting could also be in a separate section at the bottom of the page that looks like an FAQ. Keep in mind that the order and content of the steps may change a lot in development.''
-===Global intro paragraph===
+You'll also be able to sign emails to show reliably that they are from you. Though the need for signing may be less obvious, you'll actually do it more often.
-The goal of this guide is to make GPG as simple as possible.
+All you need is a computer with GNU/Linux or Windows and an Internet connection. You can use your existing email account for this without affecting it.
 ===Section 1: Get the pieces===
-''Do we want to have people check if they have them first? If so, what's the best way to do it? Alternately, do we want to check that the client is up to date?''
+''Before starting, you'll need any one of these desktop email programs installed on your computer: [http://www.fossamail.org/ FossaMail] (for Windows), [http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Icedove Icedove]  (for Debian GNU/Linux), [http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ Thunderbird] (for other GNU/Linux flavors, Apple OS X), or any other program based on one of these. If you are already using one of these, you can skip to Step 1.b.''
+''An email program lets you read and write mail without using a Web browser, and provides special features that are hard to find in email systems you use in a Web browser. Using an email program doesn't mean that you have to make a new email account -- most people just connect an existing email account from a Web email service (like GMail) or their workplace to their email program. You can think of it as another way to access the same email account.''
+====Step 1.a: Set your email program up with your email account (if it isn't already)====
+* Open your email program and follow the wizard that sets it up with your email account.
-====Step: Get an Icedove-like email client if you don't already have it====
+'''Troubleshooting'''
-* Check if you have Icedove installed. A variant of this program, like Thunderbird or SeaMonkey will also work. If you have one of these, skip this step.
+* My email program can't find my account or isn't downloading my mail.
-* If you don't have it, install it.
+** Answer coming soon
-====Step: Configure your email client for your email account if it isn't already====
+====Step 1.b: If you are using Windows, download gpg4Win====
-* Check if you have Thunderbird configured for the email account you want to use. If you do, skip this step.
+* [http://files.gpg4win.org/gpg4win-2.2.1.exe Download it], run the executable and click through the installation wizard with all the default settings. You don't need to run the program once it's installed.
-* Configure it. ''We may need to link out to another tutorial to avoid covering a huge number of different questions about various mail server configurations.''
+====Step 1.c: Install the Enigmail plugin for your email program====
+* In your email program's menu, select Add-ons (it may be in the Tools section). Make sure Extensions is selected on the left. Do you see Enigmail? if so, skip this step.
+* If not, search "Enigmail" with the search bar in the upper right. You can take it from here. Restart your email program when you're done.
+'''Troubleshooting'''
+* I can't find the menu
+** In many new email programs, it's represented by an image of three stacked horizontal bars.
-====Step: Get GnuPG if you don't already have it====
-* Check if you have GnuPG installed. If you do, skip this step.
-* Download and install
-====Step: Install Enigmail====
-* Check if you have Enigmail installed. If you do, skip this step.
-* In your email client, select Tools -> Add-ons, then search "Enigmail" with the search bar in the upper right. You can take it from here. Your email client may require that you restart it to finish installing.
 ===Section 2: Make your keys===
-''What if someone already has the email client configured and it makes the wizard more complicated, like in <https://securityinabox.org/en/thuderbird_encryption#4.2>?''
 ====Intro text====
-Explains the difference between signing and encryption with example cases.
+''To use the GnuPG system, you'll need a public key and a private key (known together as a keypair). Each is a long string of randomly generated numbers that are unique to you. Your public and private keys are linked together by a special mathematical function.''
+====Step 2.a: Make a keypair====
-====Step: Make a keypair====
+* In your email program's menu, select OpenPGP -> Setup Wizard. You don't need to read the text in the window that pops up unless you'd like to, but it's good to read the text on the later screens of the wizard.
-''The wizard claims to run automatically on the first install. Mention that the optimization will put your messages in plaintext? Talk about the fact that any key pair generated using OpenPGP Setup Wizard is automatically based on a 2048-bit structure, and has a lifespan of 5 years. Both these characteristics cannot be changed after the key pair has been generated using this method. Revocation cert?''
-* In your email client, select OpenPGP -> Setup Wizard. You don't need to read the text in the window that pops up unless you'd like to, but it's good to read the text on the later screens of the wizard.
 * On the second screen, titled "Signing," select "No, I want to create per-recipient rules for emails that need to be signed."
 * Use the default options until you reach the screen titled "Create Key"
 * On the screen titled "Create Key," pick a strong password! Your password should be at least 8 characters and include at least one lower case and upper case letter and at least one punctuation mark. Don't forget it, or all this work will be wasted!
+* The program will take a little while to finish the next step, the "Key Creation" screen. While you wait, do something else with your computer, like watching a movie or browsing the Web. The more you use the computer at this point, the faster the key creation will go.
+* When the OpenPGP Confirm screen pops up, select Generate Certificate and choose to save it in a safe place on your computer (we recommend making a folder called "Revocation Certificate" in your home folder and keeping it there. You'll learn more about the revocation certificate in Section 5. The setup wizard will ask you to move it onto an external device, but that isn't necessary at this moment.
+''After creating your key, the Enigmail set-up wizard automatically uploaded it to a keyserver, an online computer that makes everyone's keys available through the Internet.''
 '''Troubleshooting'''
 * Enigmail detected an existing key on my computer
+** Answer coming soon
 * I can't find the OpenPGP menu
+** In many new email programs, it's represented by an image of three stacked horizontal bars.
-====Step: Upload it to a server====
-''I think the Wizard already does this''
-* Upload it to this specific server.
 ===Section 3: Try it out!===
-Now you'll try a test correspondence with a computer program named Adele, which knows how to use encryption. You'd follow the same steps if communicating with a real person.
+''Now you'll try a test correspondence with a computer program named Adele, which knows how to use encryption. You'd follow the same steps if communicating with a real person. Then you'll send your first signed email to a real person!''
-====Step: Download the test bot's key from a keyserver====
+====Step 3.a: Download Adele's public key from a keyserver====
-* In your email client, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management -> Keyserver -> Search for Keys
+* In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management -> Keyserver -> Search for Keys.
 * In the "Search for keys" field, type adele-en@gnupp.de. That's Adele's email address.
 * Check the first result (Key ID starting with 9) and hit OK.
-====Step: Send a test encrypted email====
+====Step 3.b: Send a test encrypted email====
-* Write a new email in your mail client, addressed to adele-en@gnupp.de. The subject and body can be whatever you like, but they shouldn't be empty.
+* Write a new email in your email program, addressed to adele-en@gnupp.de. Make the subject "Encryption test" or something similar and write something in the body.
-* In the bottom right of the email composition window, click the icon of the key. This tells Enigmail to encrypt the email.
+* Before sending the email, click the icon of the key in the bottom right of the composition window (it should turn yellow). This tells Enigmail to encrypt the email with the key you downloaded in the last step.
+* When Adele receives your email, she will use her private key to decrypt it, then fetch your public key from a keyserver and use it to encrypt a response to you.
+''Since you encrypted this email with Adele's public key, Adele's private key is required to decrypt it. Adele is the only one with her private key, so no one except her -- not even you -- can decrypt it.''
+* It may take two or three minutes for Adele to respond. In the meantime, you might want to skip ahead and check out the Use it well section of this guide.
+* When you receive Adele's email and open it, Enigmail will automatically detect that it is encrypted with your public key, and then it will use your private key to decrypt it.
+''Notice the bar that Enigmail shows you with information about the status of Adele's key.''
+====Step 3.c: Send a test signed email to a friend====
+* Write a new email in your email program, addressed to a friend. If you want, tell them about this guide!
+* Before sending the email, click the icon of the pencil in the bottom right of the composition window (it should turn yellow). This tells Enigmail to sign the email with you private key.
+* After you click send, Enigmail will ask you for your password. It will do this any time it needs to use your public key.
+===Section 4: Learn the Web of Trust===
+''Email encryption is a powerful technology, but it has a weakness; it requires a way to verify that a person's keypair is actually theirs. Otherwise, there would be no way to stop an attacker from making an email address with your friends name, creating a keypair to go with it and impersonating your friend. They would then be able to impersonate your friend by signing messages with the private key they'd created, and decrypt messages intended for your friend with the public key.''
+''That's why the programmers that developed email encryption created keysigning and the Web of Trust. Keysigning allows a person to publicly state that they trust that a public key belongs to a specific person. To sign someone's public key, you need to use your private key, so the world will know that it was you.''
+====Step 4.a: Sign a key====
+* In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management.
+* Right click on Adele's public key and select Sign Key from the context menu.
+* In the window that pops up, select "I will not answer" and click OK
+* In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management -> Keyserver -> Upload Public Keys and hit OK.
+''You've just effectively said "I trust that Adele's public key actually belongs to Adele." This doesn't mean much because Adele isn't a real person. Before signing a real person's key, '''always make sure it actually belongs to them, and answer honestly in the window that pops up and asks "How carefully have you verified that the key you are about to sign actually belongs to the person(s) named above?"'''
+''It's important to take keysigning seriously because it will affect people beyond just you and the person who's key you are signing. If someone doubts that a key actually belongs to the person that is says it does, they can go on a keyserver and see the number of signatures that it has. The more it has, the more they are likely to trust it.''
-====Step: Sign a key====
+''The Web of Trust takes this concept to the next level. It is a network of key signatures that is saved in keyservers on the Internet. It builds chains of trust between individuals that do not know each other by passing through others, a bit like the famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation "six degrees of separation" game]. You don't need to understand it in detail to use email encryption, but it will become a powerful tool if you become an advanced user.''
-====Step: Send a test signed email====
+===Section 5: Use it well===
-* Send it to the bot at this address and wait for this confirmation.
+====When should I encrypt? When should I sign?====
+Everyone uses GnuPG a little differently. Encryption is most important for messages involving finances, personal information, politically sensitive conversations and anything else that you wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands. Signing is best for when you think there might be concern about your identity, or as a way of demonstrating that you know how to use GnuPG and will be able to decrypt emails. If you're already encrypting, there's no reason not to sign as well, to give the recipient added assurance that the message is from you.
-===Section 4: Use it well===
+If you're using your email program (or wherever you have GnuPG set up) often, we recommend that you sign all outgoing messages because it turns you into an ambassador for GnuPG. Anyone can read a signed email, so it doesn't matter if the recipient doesn't yet know how to use email encryption. The more you encrypt the better, but you won't be able to do so unless the recipient has a public key. However, if you've set it up for an email program on your computer, but you primarily use email through your phone, then you'll only want to fire up the email program and use GnuPG for special occasions. If this describes you, we recommend you use
-====Intro paragraph====
+====Be wary of invalid keys====
-Everyone uses this a little differently. Send signed emails in this context. Send encrypted emails in this context. Talk about the Web of Trust.
+Coming soon.
 ====Step: Make it part of your online identity====
-* Publish it to your email signature, social media profile, blog, Website, business card in these ways. Put it anywhere that you put your email address.
+''Start writing your key ID anywhere someone would see your email address. Add it to your email signature, social media profile, blog, Website, or business card.''
-* Tell your friends about it
-====Step: Get your key signed by people====
+====Important: act swiftly if you lose your key====
-* Refer them to the instructions in the previous step
+If you lose your private key or someone else gets ahold of it (say, by stealing your computer), it's important to revoke it immediately before someone else uses it to steal your identity. This guide doesn't cover how to revoke a key, but it only takes a minute. We recommend you Google it or seek help from a skilled friend. After you're done revoking, send an email to everyone with whom you usually use your key to make sure they know.
-====Step: Sign other peoples' keys====
+===Section 6: Next steps===
-* Download them or get them on a flash drive.
+* Switch to GNU/Linux
-* Sign them
+* Share this guide and help a friend get started
-* Upload them
+* Learn more about GPG
+* Learn more about free software and why it's more secure
+* Participate in a keysigning party
+Keysigning parties are social events designed to build the Web of Trust. Participants match each others' photo IDs and Key IDs, and then get out their laptops and sign each other's public keys. They're a great way to meet likeminded people and learn about new privacy tools, as well as build up people's trust in your key. Look for keysigning at tech events, hackerspaces and nerdy parties.
+* Try other encryption technologies: OTR, encrypting your hard drive, Tor, link to surveillance collection in directory, or prism-break with free software filter, if that has been set up
+* Like programming? Contribute code to [https://www.gnupg.org/ GnuPG] or [https://www.enigmail.net/home/index.php Enigmail].
+* Support the Free Software Foundation
-====Step: Keep it up to date====
-* Refresh your keys, especially after some kind of signing has happened that necessitates it
-* Keep track of expiration dates
-* How to exchange public keys
-===Next steps breakdown===
+==FAQ==
-** Attend or host a keysigning party (is there a good way to find them?)
+* My key expired
-** An encrypted email group where people talk about encryption: <http://groups.yahoo.com/neo>/groups/PGPNET/info
+Answer coming soon.
-** Try other encryption technologies: OTR, encrypting your hard drive, Tor
+* Who can read encrypted messages? Who can read signed ones?
-** Link to surveillance collection in directory, or prism-break with free software filter, if that has been set up
+* My email program is opening at times I don't want it to open/is now my default program and I don't want it to be.
-** Donate to the FSF or GnuPG, Thunderbird or Enigmail!

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Difference between revisions of "GPG guide/Textual Draft"

Latest revision as of 12:30, 5 June 2014

Contents

The guide has launched at EmailSelfDefense.FSF.org and this page is now deprecated

Infographic will go here

Global intro paragraph

Section 1: Get the pieces

Step 1.a: Set your email program up with your email account (if it isn't already)

Step 1.b: If you are using Windows, download gpg4Win

Step 1.c: Install the Enigmail plugin for your email program

Section 2: Make your keys

Intro text

Step 2.a: Make a keypair

Section 3: Try it out!

Step 3.a: Download Adele's public key from a keyserver

Step 3.b: Send a test encrypted email

Step 3.c: Send a test signed email to a friend

Section 4: Learn the Web of Trust

Step 4.a: Sign a key

Section 5: Use it well

When should I encrypt? When should I sign?

Be wary of invalid keys

Step: Make it part of your online identity

Important: act swiftly if you lose your key

Section 6: Next steps

FAQ

Campaigns

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