1 Gpg4win - Cryptography for Everyone

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1 Gpg4win - Cryptography for Everyone

What is Gpg4win? Wikipedia answers this question as follows:

The "Novices" and "Advanced Users" handbooks have been combined for this second version under the name "Compendium". In Version 2, Gpg4win includes the following programs:

• GnuPG
  GnuPG forms the heart of Gpg4win - the actual encryption software.
• Kleopatra
  The central certificate administration of Gpg4win, which ensures uniform user navigation for all cryptographic operations.
• GNU Privacy Assistant (GPA)
  is an alternative program for managing certificates, in addition to Kleopatra.
• GnuPG for Outlook (GpgOL)
  is an extension for Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007, which is used to sign and encrypt messages.
• GPG Explorer eXtension (GpgEX)
  is an extension for Windows Explorer which can be used to sign and encrypt files using the context menu.
• Claws Mail
  is a full e-mail program that offers very good support for GnuPG.

Using the GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) encryption program, anyone can encrypt e-mails securely, easily and at no cost. GnuPG can be used privately or commercially without any restrictions. The encryption technology used by GnuPG is secure, and cannot be broken based on today's state of technology and research.

GnuPG is Free Software². That means that each person has the right to use this software for private or commercial use. Each person may and can study the source code of the programs and - if they have the required technical knowledge - make modifications and forward these to others.

With regard to security software, this level of transparency - guaranteed access to the source code - forms an indispensable foundation. It is the only way of actually checking the trustworthiness of the programming and the program itself.

GnuPG is based on the international standard OpenPGP (RFC 2440), which is fully compatible with PGP and also uses the same infrastructure (certificate server etc.) as the latter. Since Version 2 of GnuPG, the cryptographic standardS/MIME (IETF RFC 3851, ITU-T X.509 and ISIS-MTT/Common PKI) are also supported.

PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") is not Free Software; many years ago, it was briefly available at the same conditions as GnuPG. However, this version has not corresponded with the latest state of technology for some time.

Gpg4win's predecessors were supported by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie as part of the Security on the Internet initiative. Gpg4win and Gpg4win2 were supported by the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI).

Additional information on GnuPG and other projects undertaken by the Federal Government for security on the Internet can be found on the webpages www.bsi.de and www.bsi-fuer-buerger.de of the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik.

1 Gpg4win - Cryptography for Everyone

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