At 12:39 PM 8/13/96 +0100, sasa.roskar@uni-lj.si wrote:
I'm confused.... if you don't want people to be able to read your email, you code it with PGP or other encoders... but why give away your key on your website to everyone? That makes your email readable to everyone... doesn't it? Oh well... I hope someone can explain this to me...
Public keys and private keys: Private key only you know, Public key everybody knows. You use private key to sign, you use the other guys public key to encrypt, so that no one but him can read the message, not even you, unless you kept the original copy. Public key does not decrypt. Other guy uses his private key to decrypt the message you sent him. What one man knows, nobody knows, what two men know, everyone knows. If you had to share keys in order to communicate, the keys would not stay secret very long. Public key encrypts and verifies signature. Private key encrypts and signs. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd@echeque.com