PGP: Pretty Good Privacy: Pretty Good Privacy 1st Edition

by Simson Garfinkel (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1565920989

ISBN-10: 1565920988

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Use of the Internet is expanding beyond anyone's expectations. As corporations, government offices, and ordinary citizens begin to rely on the information highway to conduct business, they are realizing how important it is to protect their communications -- both to keep them a secret from prying eyes and to ensure that they are not altered during transmission. Encryption, which until recently was an esoteric field of interest only to spies, the military, and a few academics, provides a mechanism for doing this.PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy, is a free and widely available encryption program that lets you protect files and electronic mail. Written by Phil Zimmermann and released in 1991, PGP works on virtually every platform and has become very popular both in the U.S. and abroad. Because it uses state-of-the-art public key cryptography, PGP can be used to authenticate messages, as well as keep them secret. With PGP, you can digitally "sign" a message when you send it. By checking the digital signature at the other end, the recipient can be sure that the message was not changed during transmission and that the message actually came from you.PGP offers a popular alternative to U.S. government initiatives like the Clipper Chip because, unlike Clipper, it does not allow the government or any other outside agency access to your secret keys.PGP: Pretty Good Privacy by Simson Garfinkel is both a readable technical user's guide and a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at cryptography and privacy. Part I, "PGP Overview," introduces PGP and the cryptography that underlies it. Part II, "Cryptography History and Policy," describes the history of PGP -- its personalities, legal battles, and other intrigues; it also provides background on the battles over public key cryptography patents and the U.S. government export restrictions, and other aspects of the ongoing public debates about privacy and free speech. Part III, "Using PGP," describes how to use PGP: protecting files and email, creating and using keys, signing messages, certifying and distributing keys, and using key servers. Part IV, "Appendices," describes how to obtain PGP from Internet sites, how to install it on PCs, UNIX systems, and the Macintosh, and other background information. The book also contains a glossary, a bibliography, and a handy reference card that summarizes all of the PGP commands, environment variables, and configuration variables.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're concerned about the security of personal information on your computer--or in your e-mail--get PGP using this book. Garfinkel's guide to PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption software is a comprehensive guide to secure encryption for everyone and anyone. So much so that even Phil Zimmerman, who created PGP, said he learned new things from this book. But more than that, it takes you behind the scenes into the fascinating history and workings of the great intellectual adventure story of cryptography. This book is a fascinating read as well as a top-notch guide, and is needed now more than ever.

From the Publisher

Use of the Internet is expanding beyond anyone's expectations. As corporations, government offices, and ordinary citizens begin to rely on the information highway to conduct business, they are realizing how important it is to protect their communications -- both to keep them a secret from prying eyes and to ensure that they are not altered during transmission. Encryption, which until recently was an esoteric field of interest only to spies, the military, and a few academics, provides a mechanism for doing this. PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy, is a free and widely available encryption program that lets you protect files and electronic mail. Written by Phil Zimmermann and released in 1991, PGP works on virtually every platform and has become very popular both in the U.S. and abroad. Because it uses state-of-the-art public key cryptography, PGP can be used to authenticate messages, as well as keep them secret. With PGP, you can digitally "sign" a message when you send it. By checking the digital signature at the other end, the recipient can be sure that the message was not changed during transmission and that the message actually came from you. PGP offers a popular alternative to U.S. government initiatives like the Clipper Chip because, unlike Clipper, it does not allow the government or any other outside agency access to your secret keys. PGP: Pretty Good Privacy by Simson Garfinkel is both a readable technical user's guide and a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at cryptography and privacy. Part I, "PGP Overview," introduces PGP and the cryptography that underlies it. Part II, "Cryptography History and Policy," describes the history of PGP -- its personalities, legal battles, and other intrigues; it also provides background on the battles over public key cryptography patents and the U.S. government export restrictions, and other aspects of the ongoing public debates about privacy and free speech. Part III, "Using PGP," describes how to use PGP: protecting files and email, creating and using keys, signing messages, certifying and distributing keys, and using key servers. Part IV, "Appendices," describes how to obtain PGP from Internet sites, how to install it on PCs, UNIX systems, and the Macintosh, and other background information. The book also contains a glossary, a bibliography, and a handy reference card that summarizes all of the PGP commands, environment variables, and configuration variables.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (December 27, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1565920988
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1565920989
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.56 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.97 x 9.19 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,961,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #726 in Computer Cryptography
- #1,242 in Computer Operating Systems (Books)
- #1,628 in Computer Networking (Books)

Customer Reviews:
20 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		48%
4 star		35%
3 star		9%
2 star		9%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Luciano Ramalho

Excellent explainer for public key cryptography, with awesome diagrams. Plus, the curious history of PGP itself.

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought a copy of this book 15 years ago, read it from cover to cover and loaned to somebody who never returned it. So I just bought a second copy because the history of PGP as told in the book is fascinating, the explanations about cryptography in general and public key cryptography in particular are the best I've seen and the diagrams that go with them are awesome. Oh yes, you can also learn to use PGP, but for that you'll prefer the official docs because the version covered in the book is too old. But the concepts remain the same, and that's where this book really shines.

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Michael J

Interesting history of PGP

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is old, but it's a classic if you're interested in the history behind PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

It's no longer really relevant as an actual useful reference, but the historical parts are interesting.

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Chris B Campbell

Older, But detailed

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is an older text, but it offers great detail on the origins of modern private cryptography and the PGP software. Technically, the text is now out of date...

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Curious Reader

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

It's good enough that I replaced an unreturned loan of my first copy.

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don

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

great

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eagleeyepete

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2014

Verified Purchase

It was too difficult for me to master.

One person found this helpful

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Candyman

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2016

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Dave

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2014

Verified Purchase

I thought I was ordering the software. What I got was a book ABOUT the software.

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LFC

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

I good book to read before you start buying drugs at "The Darknet

Peter Dassow

Gutes Buch über die Historie von PGP

Reviewed in Germany on May 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

Dieses Buch von Simson Garfinkel hatte 1995 beim Erscheinen sicherlich auch als praktisches (Benutzer-)Handbuch seinen Sinn, heutzutage (2013) hat es aber aufgrund der beschriebenen Programm-Historie - es wird die damalige politische Randbedingung der allerersten PGP (1.0) Version beschrieben - aber seinen (neuen) Wert. Die weiteren Hintergründe der Folgeversionen (bis Version 3.0) werden ebenfalls genauestens erläutert.
Es wird auch auf die Grundsätze der asymmetrischen Verschlüsselung genau und sehr verständlich eingegangen, was natürlich als Basiswissen immer noch dienen kann - auch jetzt noch.
Vielleicht sollten die Cloud-Dienste-Jünger dieses Buch auch nochmal lesen, um zu verstehen, warum man bereits damals eine große Notwendigkeit in der Verschlüsselung von Daten gesehen hatte, denn so sorglos wie heute wollte man damals nicht mit seinen Daten umgehen. Als Standardwerk weiterhin sehr gut, wenn auch als Benutzerhandbuch inzwischen (total) überholt.

2 people found this helpful

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Kostis

Excellent

Reviewed in Germany on February 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

I needed the book for a project about email encyption and it fulfilled my expectations. Very well structured with many examples!

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PGP: Pretty Good Privacy: Pretty Good Privacy 1st Edition

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