Keys

In this section, you are introduced several concepts of key management. As you may have known, cryptosystems use keys to manage secrecy.

Creating a Keypair

To use MyPrivacyKey, the first step is to generate a keypair for yourself if you do not have one. A keypair consists of a pair of keys. One is called public key, which can be spread through any media to anyone; the other key is called private key, which must be kept to yourself as a secret. Nobody needs your secret key to work with you unless he has a malicious agenda on you. It is crucial that your secret key remains secret.

To help you manage your keys, once generated, your keys are kept on a virtual key ring as a computer file. When generating your keypair, you are asked to provide an arbitrarily long passphrase. This long passphrase is used to protect your secret key. Whenever your secret key is needed to perform a task, you will be asked for this passphrase.

Exporting Your Public Key

To enable others contacting/identifying you securely, you need to tell others your public key. To do this, you export your public key and send it to others through e-mails or other media. Additionally you can post your exported public key on your personal website, for example.

Importing Keys From Others

To be able to communicate with others securely, you need others' public keys. To do this, you first get others' public keys through any means. Then you import the keys onto your key ring.

While it is optional, you should always verify the public keys you got are authentic. To do this, you should generate a fingerprint of the key you are trying to authenticate. Then call the key owner, for example, to personally verify the fingerprint over the phone. This is the highly recommended method to authenticate your friends' keys. For further information, study the case of "the man in the middle" attack on the Internet.