Email encryption howto

In a fortuitous coincidence, the Register has published an article on email encryption.   Just following on the heels on my posting about Gnus authinfo encryption.

While it is certainly Windows oriented, it should be useful to get your basic installation right.  Add to that my refrain, that it's always best to install it in folders without spaces in their names.  Sooner or later that tends to cop out somewhere with some program.

If you install it (note the warnings in the Epilogue about trusting public keys), then configure easypg to point to your gnupg exes and other files, you should be done.

Using it with Gnus is not the only reason you need to install easypg and gnupg

Encrypting your Authinfo file

The authinfo file is used by Gnus to connect to various mail servers.  Putting the connection details, userid and passwords in it lets you login into different mail servers and download or access your mail and News without having to type in your userid and password everytime.

But the data is stored in plain text.  And if you feel uncomfortable with the file have all the details in plain text, encrypt it using EasyPG.

The emacswiki page on GnusEncryptedAuthInfo provides clear instructions on how to configure your EasyPG setup to encrypt your authinfo file.  Do note that you need to have gnupg installed to make it all work.  Of course.

And a little idea about what is a pass phrase, public, provate keys would help you in understanding the instructions better rather than following arcane (seemingly) instructions.