Secure email with PGP, how to

Thunderbird

In Thunderbird, simply go to OpenPGP and click Setup Wizard. Follow all the recommendations and you will be ready to go. WARNING: You need to save your PGP password somewhere safe. If you lose that password, you won't be able to send emails via Thunderbird anymore.

1. Yes, you want the wizard to get you started.
2. Yes, you want to sign all of your emails.
3. No, you will create per-recipient rules for those who send you their public key.
4. Yes, you want to change a few default settings to make OpenPGP work better.
5. You want to create a new key pair for signing and encrypting your email.
6. Type the "passphrase" twice. This is the password which you CANNOT lose.
7. Be sure to generate the private key which is used for revocation of your certificate, in case you lose your password. Save that file somewhere secure.
8. Once finished, you will be asked for this password next time you try to send an email.

You can now view your public key at OpenPGP > Key Management > and click the Display All Keys by Default box. It will be labeled under Key ID. All keys are 8 digits long however even though it doesn't show it they will all be prefixed with 0x in front of it. So if your key is something like A6BF4CF3 it will be 0xA6BF4CF3.

Outlook

This technology is not currently compatible with Outlook.

Other Mail programs

Please consult your program's help file for how to start this setup. WARNING: You need to save your PGP password somewhere safe. If you lose that password, you won't be able to send emails via your mail program anymore.