Thursday, April 10, 2003
From Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts
Contents |
Using GNU Privacy Guard
Announcing another UPE tutorial!
Exercise your right to privacy. Use encryption!
Details
Presentation by David Van Horn (Open to All)
Date: Date: Thursday, April 10th
Time: 2.00 pm - 3.00 pm
Place: 229 Votey (the Sun lab on the second floor), University of Vermont
Contact: David Van Horn, dvanhorn(at)cs.uvm.edu
Location
See The University of Vermont Campus Map. The Votey building is on Main Campus. There is a parking lot right next to Votey but will undoubtably be full, or if you happen to find a coveted spot, you'll be ticketed and/or towed. There is parking on Mansfield Ave and its side streets, but slim pickings. The room is on the second floor of Votey, it's the lab with a glass wall and a bunch of Sun Sparc(TM) machines inside, can't miss it.
Here's a good framing of Votey. Audience
Anyone with an interest in GNU/Linux or other Unix-like systems, or Free Software in general. We are glad to meet newcomers as well as experienced folks.
This tutorial will introduce the Open-PGP public-key encryption scheme and it's use. Specifically, we will cover using Open-PGP software, namely GNU's implementation, GnuPG. Open-PGP software uses a combination of strong public-key and symmetric cryptography to provide security services for electronic communications and data storage.
The tutorial will cover:
- Creating your own key pair.
- Finding, exporting and importing key pairs from key servers.
- Signing digital documents.
- Using encrypted communication.
No prior knowledge of public-key encryption is required. A basic familiarity with UNIX is assumed, such as the ability to edit files and use command line programs. An EMBA account is required, although with prior notice guest accounts can be made available.
If you're interested in civil liberty issues concerning the digital world, I'd highly recommend checking out the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
- Electronic Frontier Foundation Home Page
- EFF: Privacy, Security, Crypto, & Surveillance" Archive
- EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy
Hardware concerns
Laptops can be brought, you won't have network connectivity though. If you have GnuPG installed already, this should work fine. You won't be able to import and export keys to a key server, but that's minor consolation.
This tutorial will be pretty simple, familiarizing people with the most basic uses of Open-PGP software. If you've been using Open-PGP it may not be worth your time and effort to make it to this tutorial. Tutorial slides will be posted on the web.
