[OldSoG]

for some reason pgp is not working too well for me here. always getting an error about a "bad packet" but i've figured out a work about.


when you get a encrypted message,



check the box at the end and then chose download at text file. this opens it up in notepad



then you can go to your pgp icon and open it like normal





this makes pgp workable for me.


peace,

[phlegmbae]

How the hell do you get it to actually go to notepad?

[mmm420socal]

PGP is worthless against the .GOV anyway... good for casual snoopers, but for absolute security the only way is to not talk on the PC at all...

JMHO.

M

[OldSoG]

mine opens with notepad by default... you using mozilla/firefox or IE? you may need to have notepad be your default viewer for .txt files.

with firefox it opens a windows asking if i want to allow it to use notepad to open the message.

peace,

[phlegmbae]

I've got'er figured out now OS. Thanks for pointing this stuff out. I hope others find this post.

[Underground Man]

Originally Posted by mmm420socal

PGP is worthless against the .GOV anyway... good for casual snoopers, but for absolute security the only way is to not talk on the PC at all...

JMHO.

M

pgp is not worthless against the gov, sorry to say but that is some uninformed BS. Do some research, we are talking about mathematical certainties here.

If you really were the target of the government most likely they would try to steal your private key and passphrase rather than invest the thousands of years of computation to break the encryption with brute force.

And I think most government survielince is "casual", think about carnivore, echelon, etc. There is no way they can attack all the encrypted data they collect.

Still PGP never claims to be totally secure, just "Pretty Good Privacy" You are right about the only way to achieve absolute security though.

[Verite]

I also think you highly underestimate their resources. Thousands of sand turds have been using pgp for years and if you think the govt doesnt have a few machines that break pgp in a matter of seconds you would probably be mistaken.

[Underground Man]

Originally Posted by Verite

I also think you highly underestimate their resources.

I don't think so, I have read many books about the NSA and I think it is safe to assume that they are years (maybe even decades) ahead of the curve when it comes to computer technology. (I feel it is very evil that they hold back these technological advances from the public though)

Theoretically a machine can be built that can crack 1024 bit PGP messages in about a year. I'd bet money that the NSA DOES have such a machine.

But you should realize that 2048 bit encryption isn't twice as secure as 1024, it is many thousands time more secure.

Also It would be much easier for the spooks to hack your computer and steal your public key and passphrase than tie up their billion dollar machine for a year cracking your emails. Maybe they can send an agent to your house to break in and do that if you use good computer security.

My point is that RSA encryption is the strongest link in the chain, storage of the private key is the weaksest. You shouldn't be concerned that the GOVCO will try to attack your messages, rather that they will try to steal your key.

[guineapig]

i am down with learning more about PGP....

thanks for helping people remain more secure if they so wish to learn how to do so.....

-kind regards from guineapig

[Verite]

Last I heard the NSA was getting one of those new ones with the some odd 65,000 processors in it and I have a hard time thinking it would take a years crunching time on that to crack pgp.

For every pgp key they think they can steal theres got to be more that they cant. Those are more realistic odds.