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I'm not so worried about the national ID card at the moment, maybe I see things differently, but I highly doubt it will actually come into play SOON. As in less than 10 years. Governments have a tendancy to move extremely slow. Much of what I understand in their intent on such an ID, would be standardization of certian things within the ID system so it would be technically simpler in terms of accessing data.

The system has been in place for decades to share information, but never in electronic form... yet. This would allow easier access, but they'd still have to go through the red tape to access such information. Maybe I'm too utopian about the idea of such. Let me know if you think I'm wrong.

Now back on topic.

I love my privacy. I seperate my online transactions with what I want to keep anonymous and what I don't mind being put in the public. Journals, Emails, whatever software I happen to be writing, business plans etc. No one has a right to see them. Encryption is merely a means to an end for me in privacy. I lock the bios, user authentication with linux or Windows (with the NSA's help), and GPG with WinPT

I've never used GPG on another platform, so I don't know how it works, but WinPT lets you encrypt the current window or clipboard, which allows you to sign or encrypt in applications that don't otherwise have support.

I agree about 7-Zip, except that it doesn't do multivolume archives - it'll extract RAR multivolume, but cannot create them.

As long as I'm posting, here goes my top 10

Windows (after all the patches, of course)

1. Firefox (or whatever it's name is during the week of the install) (also MyIE is sort of neat)
2. Latest version of Outlook (usually as part of Office - gotta have email, but GOTTA take the plunge and transition to a better email client...)
3. Putty
4. WinAmp
5. PowerDVD
6. Yahoo Messenger (it's sad, but I still like it better than GAIM et al...)
7. WinSCP
8. Windows Privacy Tools
9. Adobe Acrobat Reader
10. BNR2
11. EverQuest!

Linux

Nothing! RedHat (Fedora) comes with all I need. Though the programs I update right away (and use most often) are:

1. NMAP
2. Mozilla
3. Apache
4. SSH
5. SSL
6. PHP
7. TinyProxy (Essential for bypassing my employer's content filter)

Ok, so TinyProxy isn't part of the base install. Whatever.

That's about it. I don't really use Linux as a primary machine, and I rarely use the graphical interface on it. On the Windows box I will also usually install a better editor, though it changes about every install. WinVIM is my current choice. And of course, the latest codecs for QuickTime Alternative and XViD.

I install these programs first on new Windows machines.

• firefox
• cygwin (including emacs, ncftp, wget, openssh, grep, sed, and other favorites)
• putty
• ntfilemon/ntregmon
• Java2 SDK
• winamp
• VideoLAN Client
• wget
• WinPT/gpg
• Filzip

VNC, Emacs for Windows, VMWare, CDEx, Vorbis Tools, DaemonTools follow. I like Photoshop but as long as it's crippled (currency watermarks) and activated I'll never buy another license for it.

Could you incript the particular files that are sensitive, so that by the time a cracker decrypted them, they were useless? This wouldn't work for a database that was accessed constantly without code editing, but for most applications, it would work well. WinPT was the first application I found, but there must be many of them.

Cheers,

F.

There are some wrappers for GPG, which is solely a command line utility. The Windows Privacy Tray is quite good.

Recently, I built an installer for WinPT 0.7.91 and GnuPG 1.2.0. Hopefully it is a much better approach to GnuPG than GnuPG alone, and almost as good as PGP itself for the newbies.

It can be found here (sig here). These links are a courtesy of Stephan Frye who apparently has a lot more bandwidth than me.

The original site for the installer contains some information about it, the apps packaged and is here, and the primary mirror, here.
The original site IS extremelly slow from 08am to 22pm (GMT+3).

Windows Privacy Tray home site is here.

An interface. And corporate support. (Some might say a lack of RMS is a good selling point in itself.)

There are some wrappers for GPG, which is solely a command line utility. The Windows Privacy Tray is quite good.

However, one of the terms of sale of PGP IIRC was that there would always be a 'freeware' edition available, and that is definitely the case with PGP 8.0. This will be the first release that correctly supports Windows XP.

I'm on some mailing lists where people like to GPG (GNU's PGP clone) sign email, and our LUG have had a couple of GPG keysignings.

So, being a OSS supporting Windows user, I thought I'd try this out.

My normal mail client is Outlook Express (don't complain, when used by someone with a clue there's no more security risk than with any other mailer), and the method that PGP plugs into Outlook Express is digusting. There's a GPG Outlook Express plugin that suffers from the same problem. Basically, when a message windows is loaded, the decoder automatically copies all the text from the window into a buffer, runs the text through PGP, and then pastes the results back into the window. In the case of the version of PGP I tried, in 8pt font.

This also doesn't help when you have a Windows mailer that doesn't support MIME types correctly (Evolution especially likes to send mail with the PGP block as an 'attachment', which basically means your message appears blank in OE with two attachments). No PGP verification there.

I hear Outlook isn't much better; Outlook's IMAP support isn't as polished as OE's, and I guess they don't really want to make it better at the expense of Exchange licenses.

What's the answer? Enigmail. You have to use Mozilla Mail, of course, but that's something that can be adjusted to (and if it's too hard to adjust, it can be customized in XUL of course.) But it seems to be the only way to get correct behaivour for PGP email verification in Windows. And it's all OSS, too.

That said, it didn't handle decryption at all. But I was running a beta on a nightly with a 2 day old GPG build, etc. You get what you pay for.

What would I like to see happen? Outlook Express to become a bit more modular, with actual support for PGP (even the free PGP Home edition would be better than nothing). Or Mozilla Mail evolve a little bit more so I can tolerate using it as my mail client ;)

WinPT under windows will setup and manage gpg keys. Its a GPL'ed program that sits in the system tray and allows quick access to GPG functions. (Kind of like what later versions of PGP does.) WinPT's installation file includes a copy of GPG. WinPT + Mozilla 1.2a + Enigmail works well under windows.

Disclaimer: There is a bug (I've notified the author) where if you install winPT under c:/program files/winPT instead of the default c:/winPT, you need to set the path in options to c:/progra~1/winpt. The long file name with spaces support is a tad broken. :)

WinPT

• First, download the full WinPT install [v. 0.5.5, 1.2 MB]. This also handles the tricky job of installing and configuring GPG on your system.
• Now, get the incremental WinPT update [v. 0.7.91, 200 KB]. It's a developmental version but contains fewer bugs than 0.5.5 and is quite stable. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Head over to the GPG mirrors page, choose your nearest location, then navigate to /pub/gnupg/binary/ and download gnupg-w32cli-1.2.0.zip [1068 KB]. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Read up on the excellent GPG Manual and HOWTO and WinPT's documentation.

• First, download the full WinPT install [v. 0.5.5, 1.2 MB]. This also handles the tricky job of installing and configuring GPG on your system.
• Now, get the incremental WinPT update [v. 0.7.91, 200 KB]. It's a developmental version but contains fewer bugs than 0.5.5 and is quite stable. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Head over to the GPG mirrors page, choose your nearest location, then navigate to /pub/gnupg/binary/ and download gnupg-w32cli-1.2.0.zip [1068 KB]. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Read up on the excellent GPG Manual and HOWTO and WinPT's documentation.

• First, download the full WinPT install [v. 0.5.5, 1.2 MB]. This also handles the tricky job of installing and configuring GPG on your system.
• Now, get the incremental WinPT update [v. 0.7.91, 200 KB]. It's a developmental version but contains fewer bugs than 0.5.5 and is quite stable. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Head over to the GPG mirrors page, choose your nearest location, then navigate to /pub/gnupg/binary/ and download gnupg-w32cli-1.2.0.zip [1068 KB]. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Read up on the excellent GPG Manual and HOWTO and WinPT's documentation.

• First, download the full WinPT install [v. 0.5.5, 1.2 MB]. This also handles the tricky job of installing and configuring GPG on your system.
• Now, get the incremental WinPT update [v. 0.7.91, 200 KB]. It's a developmental version but contains fewer bugs than 0.5.5 and is quite stable. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Head over to the GPG mirrors page, choose your nearest location, then navigate to /pub/gnupg/binary/ and download gnupg-w32cli-1.2.0.zip [1068 KB]. Unzip its contents into the WinPT install directory.
• Read up on the excellent GPG Manual and HOWTO and WinPT's documentation.

Love it. Use it all the time. Recommended.

I was using WinPT for a while, until I stumbled on GPGshell. It calls GnuPG to do the work, so you never have to worry about entering your passphrase into a GUI. IMHO, it's a lot nicer than WinPT. When you install it, you get 3 programs, which don't need each other to work:

• GPGkeys, a program to do manage all the keys.
• GPGtray, which has a lot of the options on the system tray, and magically knows the "right" thing to do with the clipboard if you double-click it. Highlighting a PGP key in a terminal window then double-clicking on an icon makes importing keys really slick.
• GPGtools, which lets you drag-and-drop files onto it.

So anyway, here's what you do:

1. Get GnuPG (1.0.7 or later) from Nullify. It comes with an installer, plus contains those sinful patented algorithms (like IDEA) that PGP was fond of using in various versions.
2. Get GPGshell, install, and tell it where you put GnuPG.

So far this setup has had no problem dealing with any PGP messages I've encountered, from 2.6.2 to 7.x, but I haven't tested it extensively.

He's concerned about having a decent product out there that everyone can use. GnuPG is great, but not everyone is willing/able to use it without a pretty GUI attached to it.

Let me second this. (Yes, I'm seconding Bruce Perens. How's that for chutzpah?.)

Most of the Gnu Privacy Guard code base is in place, but we still need a ton of help with GUIs, APIs, Web-based encrypted email, etc. And there is no GnuPGFone as far as I know.

I know PGP is your baby .. I can appreciate that, and I know what it's like to lose control of your baby. I'm not going to pretend that GnuPG is the same thing. Nonetheless, GnuPG is working toward (mostly) the same goals, and that's something worth considering. They could also use your help, as you have years and years of hard-won experience in this field. Yeah, they're young punks, but they mean well and they do good.

Just my two cents.

> Or from Outlook, FWIW

Ah, actually there a plugin for Outlook _Express_ available now. GPGOE. Outlook will take some time -- and hacking on the office dev kit -- I guess. But yes, I get what you mean about "dont work well", but I can tell you it's getting better fast! And if you can, do give WinPT a try. You may be surprised.

They have a nice little frontend for GPG that can sit in your system tray, and related projects bring GPG in to the Mozilla and Eudora mail clients as well. Plus, it's GPL'ed.

That's only for Windows, but I'm sure there are plenty of good GPG front ends for Linux and other Operating Systems as well.

I've switched, and I'm not looking back.

GnuPG (not GnuPGP) dont work in Windows

GnuPG _does_ work on Windows: http://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-1.0.6 -2.zip

But it's not graphical. For that, I've been using WinPT for some time. It's a pretty good replacement for PGPtray, not as pretty though. And it imported all my PGP 6.x/Win Keys fine too. Download with all dependencies here

Try gpgoe (plugin for Outlook Express), if that is good enough for your needs:

http://www.winpt.org/gpgoe.html

There are already many good Windows programs for GnuPG. Look at the fine WinPT program which let you encrypt texts with every mail program available. Not as comfortable as a build in program but still easy to use. For key management you can use GPA. In Germany there is already a project which combines all these programs in one windows installable program with a very good documentation: GnuPP. There is also a plugin for Outlook available (not Express).

The problem with GPG is that it lacks an easy-to-use interface and Windows plugins.

This pageprovides a fairly nice listing of some of them. Check them out, kick the tires, see if they work for you. YMMV.

One thing to note - WinPT is shaping up nicely as a general GnuPG interface (although it doesn't provide a selection of MUA-specific plugins, they do also offer GPGOE, a plugin for Outlook Express). WinPT is Open Source under the GPL license. And unlike other frontends, WinPT is more tightly integrated by using GPGME, GnuPG's new API.

The problem with GPG is that it lacks an easy-to-use interface and Windows plugins.

This pageprovides a fairly nice listing of some of them. Check them out, kick the tires, see if they work for you. YMMV.

One thing to note - WinPT is shaping up nicely as a general GnuPG interface (although it doesn't provide a selection of MUA-specific plugins, they do also offer GPGOE, a plugin for Outlook Express). WinPT is Open Source under the GPL license. And unlike other frontends, WinPT is more tightly integrated by using GPGME, GnuPG's new API.

WinPT is a great toolbar application, a front-end for GnuPG. It lets you ecnrpyt/decrypt from/to any application, including email of cours. That's one of the end-user applications that support OpenPGP that we've been telling our customers to use, when we install our product on their site so they can process forms and encrypt results via email.

While doing this, I discovered that quite a few companies do support OpenPGP but it's our job to continue this effort in 2 ways:

1. Educating others about it
2. Participating in development efforts (and this also means bug reporting, translation and documentation, stuff that even I can do!)

For a sample of companies supporting OpenPGP "movement" as Salon calls it, see:
http://www.openpgp.org/members/

It's a shame that the Salon article totally ignored to mention at least two of the easier (although not easiest) ways to use OpenPGP: Enigmail (for Mozilla/Netscape) and WinPT (for Windows/clipboard-based), among others.

They also fail to mention that GnuPG really is the command line application/libraries, and then there's a layer of front end or integration to other products. A thourough visit of GnuPG.org will reveal this.

Finally, for the webmail-oriented crowd, there's also Hush Mail (which is, BTW, a company that PZ joined after leaving NAI). What's so technically difficult about using this ?

I'm one of those many recent OS X converts who just bought my first Mac, after years of having used Unix and Windows.

PGP is something I've played with over the years, like a lot of geeks, but never used religiously. But I decided a few months ago that it was something I should start using regularly, so I sought out a mail client with built-in PGP (or variant) support. I found a neat little (non-free) Windows e-mail client called The Bat! (that's their exclamation point, not mine), which had not only built-in support, but you can configure it to use PGP, GnuPG, and even their own OpenPGP implementation. That and many other cool features persuaded me to buy that e-mail client, after which time I decided to throw the switch and begin signing all e-mail that I send.

Along the way I discovered WinPT (Windows Privacy Tray), which is a decent little frontend for GPG. Remember, GPG is a backend -- how you interface with it is up to you.

The came my Titanium PowerBook. I got it for all the reasons mentioned around Slashdot and elsewhere, but I didn't really expect to find cool things like a good GPG frontend, let alone e-mail with GPG support. Boy was I wrong! I went to the GPG site and found a link to the Mac GPG site, which ports GPG to OS X. Not only the backend, but a frontend that integrates with the "Finder" (that's Mac-speak for the "Explorer" equivalent), right in the "Services" menu (which is much like the global right-click menu in Windows Exploror.

But that's not all! I saw further down on the same page that somebody else has written an extension to the OS X default mail client (which ain't as bad as you might think) that provides very good GUI GPG support for mail.

So, even though switching over to the Mac isn't the easiest thing in the world (I say that as I sit here typing on my Windows machine for reasons I won't go into), I can say that GPG is among the least of my problems.

RP

Actually, you could probably use GnuPG now. There are already GnuPG/Windows integration tools. For instance WinPT . A part of WinPT is WinPTEE, which integrates WinPT into Explorer, so you can right click on files to encrypt and such. Also on this site is a plug-in that allows integration with Outlook Express, GPGOE. I believe all these projects are still considered Beta, and I'll admit that I've not used them (Linux User myself), but I'd suggest looking at them if you're security concious and want to convert to GnuPG.

Actually, you could probably use GnuPG now. There are already GnuPG/Windows integration tools. For instance WinPT . A part of WinPT is WinPTEE, which integrates WinPT into Explorer, so you can right click on files to encrypt and such. Also on this site is a plug-in that allows integration with Outlook Express, GPGOE. I believe all these projects are still considered Beta, and I'll admit that I've not used them (Linux User myself), but I'd suggest looking at them if you're security concious and want to convert to GnuPG.

Actually, you could probably use GnuPG now. There are already GnuPG/Windows integration tools. For instance WinPT . A part of WinPT is WinPTEE, which integrates WinPT into Explorer, so you can right click on files to encrypt and such. Also on this site is a plug-in that allows integration with Outlook Express, GPGOE. I believe all these projects are still considered Beta, and I'll admit that I've not used them (Linux User myself), but I'd suggest looking at them if you're security concious and want to convert to GnuPG.

Windows Privacy Tray seems to be the best Windows GPG GUI, I use it as my PGP replacement at the moment. I also have Mozilla, which doesn't have such great PGP integration, so I relay through GPGrelay, which checks all incoming POP mail for PGP stuff, then decrypts and verifies or encrypts and signs behind the scenes. Mozilla only sees the mail after GPGrelay has dealt with it, so it's the closest I get to seamless integration. I don't have any problems with it.

The article seems to suggest that windows users are left in limbo. Not so. Check out:

http://www.winpt.org

I use it quite a bit to sign emails and the interface is pretty clean, too.

PGP doesn't have to be hard and GPG can be dead easy... not that useing either from the command line is that difficult.

There is PGPTray and on the free software side there is WinPT (Windows Privacy Tray). This is a little system tray application that encrypts and decrypts from the clipboard and supports most of the common command line options.

There is also GPGOE, a GPG plug-in for Outlook Express.

PGP doesn't have to be hard and GPG can be dead easy... not that useing either from the command line is that difficult.

There is PGPTray and on the free software side there is WinPT (Windows Privacy Tray). This is a little system tray application that encrypts and decrypts from the clipboard and supports most of the common command line options.

There is also GPGOE, a GPG plug-in for Outlook Express.

Also was willing to look into GPG but it doesn't integrate well (if at all with Outlook). Since this wasn't a technical oriented group (most of them didn't know how to change a defalt printer). It would have needed to be somewhat idiotproof.

The point of my original Ask /. posting was to get a feel for what all of you do.