Post by Basar AlabayPost by Neil - Salem, MA USAwhich means the software will behave as freeware immediately.
But, is there a Mail.app plugin then?!
B. Alabay
No. PGP 9.x uses an "email proxy" that "sits between" your email client and
your connection to the Internet (and your ISP's email servers). The email
proxy intercepts all communications initiated by your email client and
encrypts, decrypts, signs, and/or verifies the email traffic "on the fly" as
your email traffic flows through the email proxy. The email proxy works
with transparently many popular email clients.
However, this email proxy is a licensed feature that you must pay for!
Without a license, PGP 9.9 will function much like PGP 8.1 did.
(THE FOLLOWING IS EXTRA DETAIL. IF YOU DON'T HAVE TIME, JUST IGNORE IT.)
For example, I use a license on my installation of PGP 9.9 called "PGP
Desktop Home" which enables the PGP email proxy. It also gives me a very
nice feature called PGP Virtual Disks. It cost me $99, a price that is
steep by some people's standards, but acceptable to me. I find the Virtual
Disk feature to be very useful and worth the money since I can easily move
thousands of important files to a Virtual Disk and know that they are
automatically secured (in case my computer is ever stolen).
If you use PGP 9.9 as freeware, the only way to encrypt email is to use
either the "Current Window" method or the "Clipboard" method.
The Current Window method works as follows: You open your email client and
compose an email. Before you send it, you right-click on a PGP icon in the
System Tray (aka Tray Bar), select "Current Window", select "Encrypt and
Sign" or "Encrypt" or "Sign", then select one or more PGP keys from you PGP
Keyring to encrypt to (unless you chose "Sign" only). (You will also need
to enter your passphrase for you private key if you chose either "Encrypt
and Sign" or "Sign".) Your encrypted and/or signed email will automatically
replace your clear text in the body of the email. You then simply send your
email. IN OTHER WORDS, THIS IS HOW PGP 8.1 USE TO WORK.
In the Clipboard method, you must cut your email's text to the clipboard and
then right-click on the PGP icon and select Clipboard. You then select an
operation to perform ("Encrypt and Sign", "Encrypt" or "Sign"), select PGP
keys, and possibly enter your passphrase for you private key, after which
you would paste the encrypted and/or signed results from the clipboard back
into the content area of your email client. AGAIN, this is how PGP 8.1 use
to work.
In either the Current Windows method or the Clipboard method, the content of
your email body will end up being simple text after it is decrypted.
For either the Current Window method or the Clipboard method, if you want to
encrypt and/or sign attachments, you will need to perform the encryption
and/or signing of your files prior to attaching them to the email. (PGP 9.9
operating as freeware allows for encrypting and/or signing of files, just as
PGP 8.1 did!)
If you choose to buy a license for PGP 9.9 which specifically allows for the
PGP email proxy (such as the PGP Desktop Home license), you will be able to
automatically encrypt email messages which are either text or HTML and you
will be able to automatically encrypt and/or sign attachments. The PGP
email proxy understands PGP/MIME and PGP Partitioned protocols.
PGP/MIME is very, very nice (in my opinion). It allows me to compose an
email in text or HTML formats, embed content in the HTML email such as
embedded inline images, and attach any kinds of files to the email and then
encrypt to entire email as "one package". When such an email is decrypted
by a recipient who is using software that also understands PGP/MIME, the
entire encrypted and signed "package" is decrypted and verified and the
original email is revealed: HTML or text content, inline embedded content
and all attachments. The integrity of the original email is kept fully
intact. I like that a lot.
PGP Partitioned allows the PGP email proxy to behave like many of the email
plugins used to work for earlier versions of PGP prior to PGP 9.x. In this
protocol, each attachment to an email is automatically encrypted and/or
signed separately, the HTML content is encrypted and/or signed separately,
and each and every embedded inline element is encrypted and/or signed
separately. All of these pieces become attachments to the email that is
sent to the recipient.
It is possible to use the PGP email proxy to encrypt or encrypt and sign a
text email and place the cyphertext in the body of the email that is sent to
the recipient. Likewise, using the PGP email proxy, it is possible to
sign-only a text email and put the clearsigned message in the body of the
email that is sent to the recipient. This requires the use of PGP
Partitioned protocol and text-only in the body of the mail. (Attachments
will also be automatically encrypted and/or signed if there are any.)
Neil - Salem, MA USA