home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
-
- ,
-
- ,
-
- åIntroduction
-
-
- Pretty Good(tm) Privacy (PGP), from Phil's Pretty Good Software, is a
-
- high security cryptographic software application originally for MSDOS but
-
- ported to a wide variety of platforms including Unix, VAX/VMS, most
-
- popular personal computers, and others. PGP allows people to exchange
-
- files or messages with privacy, authentication, and convenience. Privacy
-
- means that only those intended to receive a message can read it.
-
- Authentication means that messages that appear to be from a particular
-
- person can only have originated from that person. Convenience means
-
- that privacy and authentication are provided without the hassles of
-
- managing keys associated with conventional cryptographic software. No
-
- secure channels are needed to exchange keys between users, which makes
-
- PGP much easier to use. This is because PGP is based on a powerful new
-
- technology called ΓÇ£public keyΓÇ¥ cryptography.
-
-
- PGP combines the convenience of the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA)
-
- public key cryptosystem with the speed of conventional cryptography,
-
- message digests for digital signatures, data compression before
-
- encryption, good ergonomic design, and sophisticated key management.
-
- And PGP performs the public-key functions faster than most other
-
- software implementations. PGP is ΓÇ£public key cryptography for the
-
- massesΓÇ¥.
-
-
- This Macintosh interactive help dialog system by J. Norstad offers a
-
- method to help you quickly locate information in the manual. Press
-
- Command-? (or the Help key on the extended keyboard) and the cursor
-
- will turn into a question mark. Then select any menu command or click on
-
- window locations. MacPGP will bring up the Help window and scroll to the
-
- description of that object or command. The online help is under
-
- construction for more thorough and informative coverage. See the
-
- written documentation for authoritative reference.
-
-
-
-