Now you will follow similar actions as in the previous step: click on the archive to open it.
The file will download and once the download completes, the GPG suite archive should be in your downloads folder.
Scroll down to where there is a button that says "Download GPG suite" and click on that button.
This will install the application on your system. Simply drag the Thunderbird icon onto the Applications Folder icon that is also inside the folder.
If you have ever installed a Mac OS X application this next step should be familiar to you. After a few seconds, a folder will open up containing the Thunderbird application. It will go through several stages: verifying, checking volumes, mounting. Click on the archive to open it.Ī dialog box will open up saying something like "Opening Thunderbird 24.0.dmg". Once the download completes, the Thunderbird archive should be in your downloads folder, which is accessible from the task bar at the bottom of your screen. Go to and click the green button to begin downloading Thunderbird. Step 1: Download and install Mozilla Thunderbird It is possible to encrypt email attachments ( files you attach to your email ) but you need to pay special attention to the informational dialog boxes to make sure that you are doing what you intend. In other words, adversaries may still be able to figure out who you are emailing with, the subject line of your email and other information such as the frequency of your communications or the size of your encrypted messages. However it does not solve the issue of meta-data. Encrypting your emails with GPG is a countermeasure against interception of the contents of the email by 3rd parties. GPG can be used to encrypt many types of files but in this tutorial we will focus on its most common use which is for encrypting email.Įnigmail is a plug-in for Mozilla Thunderbird which adds support for encrypting and decrypting emails to make the process easier. GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) is a free, open source cross-platform alternative to the " Pretty Good Privacy" (PGP) suite of cryptographic software. Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform email client developed by the Mozilla Foundation.
For further reading see the Wikipedia entry on public-key cryptography. Conversely, you should never give your private key to anyone unless you want them to be able to read your encrypted email or files. It is OK to give out your public key to others. The public key is used to encrypt plaintext or to verify a digital signature whereas the private key is used to decrypt encrypted text or to create a digital signature. The key pair consists of two parts: the public key and the private key.
This tutorial will guide you through installing and configuring several pieces of software which can be used to protect the content of your email from interception by 3rd parties by using encryption.ĭuring this tutorial you will generate a "key pair" for encrypting files. Otherwise the change will only be local and your contacts can't benefit from the new User IDs.This document is intended to help people quickly get started encrypting their email on Mac OS X Important: If your key is on the key servers, don't forget to upload your updated key via menu Key > Send to Keyserver ( ⇧⌘K). select the User ID you want to set to "Primary".Since you now have several User IDs, it is recommended to set the most commonly used address as primary User ID. Repeate the above steps to add as many User IDs as you need. a dialog opens in which you enter Name and email address, we recommend to leave the comment field blank.click the "+" to add another email address as User ID.key details will open - select the "User IDs" tab.double-click the sec/pub key, to which you want to add a User ID.Please consider that first and then proceed. Depending on your use-case this might be wanted or should be avoided. Important: Note that all email addresses you add to a single key can be connected to one identity. If you have other email addresses you also want to encrypt emails with, you canĪ) add your other email addresses to your existing key or After creating your first key your key is usable for that single mail address you used. It's common to have several email accounts nowadays.