We Need To Take Back Our Emails

In light of the Snowden revelations about how government has thrown a very big net over our computing to gather data about us, I've grown interests on tools which can take back our privacy. I focused my efforts at emails. I know that it can be signed and encrypted, yes.

To sign emails, I don't mean that snippet of text (signature) below the message body. Signing the email requires you to generate a key pair- a public key and a private key. This key pair is unique and can be used to identify you in the digital world. I am not going to attempt to explain the mathematics of cryptology here, just this. It might be next to impossible to break it.

This key pair can also protect the integrity of files, emails and its attachments. Your email client can tell you if the message has been altered or corrupted. You will need an email client. You remember those right?

The easiest way to use key pairs is with an email client like Thunderbird, Kmail or Evolution. I use Linux by the way. I am trying this out using both Thunderbird and Evolution. I should tell you that this technology is cross platform. It is available in Windows, Mac OS and Linux. In Linux, the technology, Gnu Privacy Guard, is part of the core component of the operating system. All that is needed is for us to learn the front-ends and how to use our key pair.

Next are use cases...

Comments

Mailvelope, Encryption for Webmail

Encryption is the topic of week. I wrote about it in a related post here. While encryption is a very good idea, doing it and doing it every day as part of your work flow is another thing. My view is that if you're already using an email client then it is easier, simpler and more convenient to adopt encryption. That is not the case if you're using a webmail service. If you are using the browser to check, compose and send your email, what are your options? The answer is: it's complicated. Looking for a way to do encryption with Google Chrome and Gmail, I found this. I also read that Google just released code for email encryption as open source. But it's a long way to being used by end users. The extension for Google Chrome works fine if the recipient also uses Google Chrome. But I went ahead and check this on Evolution.

Webapps in Unity

So it has been 4 months since Ubuntu 14.04 came out. This is LTS and supported for 6 years by Canonical. The first mobile device with Ubuntu pre-installed is promised to come out later this year, 2014. It's time to check out how the apps perform so far. It is a good idea. I use Gmail and Twitter and Facebook. Why not a webapp in a desktop? So I start the Twitter and Gmail webapp. So far it has crashed my computer 6 times. Not a very good sign. On the other hand it does work but not as stable as opening them in Firefox. -- Use my PGP key if you want to encrypt your replies/messages to me. You are invited to also send me your PGP keys so we can communicate in private.

Donald Trump Is The 45th President of the United States

and he is preparing to move with his transition team into the Oval Office. His election is a shock to many political observers and the world in general. Donald Trump, the president-elect, ran against Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and for many the most qualified candidate for the presidency in many years. This has led to many post election analysis of how this upset happened. The numbers of votes for each candidate and the comparisons with previous presidential elections point to the fact that the white vote for Mr. Trump is solid all throughout but the minority and black votes did not come for Mrs. Clinton. This is what happened in crucial States like Michigan and Florida. The Republicans kept Congress and the Senate. It is quite notable that Russia and in particular, Vladimir Putin, is happy that they are going to talk to Mr. Trump rather than Mrs. Clinton. It is also a ...

Danny's Space

Search This Blog