My old(!) PGP Public Key

Since my email address moved to another computer, the PGP key below is no longer valid!!
It is kept here merely as an example and because I feel it is useful to retain the info on PGP here.
Once I have a new PGP key, it will be placed here. Until then the links from my home page and my contact me page to this page are removed. 

- -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.2i

mQCNAzC9kO0AAAEEAOdD0M0ccNT47ul4p3pv9iQs40hjq0A6OaZjhjlIKoCiP7R/
IoCD7j45cIw+PetttYnJxllTl76r69+AQ2Il4vd7kkwOODGjhvu38NuQNxlRgath
f6TuCoKVS78lLwTHPr8wDbJVrZhaefAh82H/xqgaE7LRb48tVNPTCo5XRughAAUR
tCRKb3MgdmFuIEdlZmZlbiA8am9zQHRuai5waHlzLnR1ZS5ubD4=
=Fohh
- -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

 This key is as safe as the account on the multi-user platform 
 I am using. Do not use it for personal/highly-confidentional 
 information! Instead use my personal key -- obtain it from me 
 personally and directly. No legal rights can be obtained from 
 my signature matching this public key.

 

About PGP

Pretty Good(tm) Privacy (PGP), from Phil's Pretty Good Software, is a high security cryptographic software application for MSDOS, Unix, VAX/VMS, and other computers. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with privacy, authentication, and convenience. Privacy means that only those intended to receive a message can read it. Authentication means that messages that appear to be from a particular person can only have originated from that person. Convenience means that privacy and authentication are provided without the hassles of managing keys associated with conventional cryptographic software. No secure channels are needed to exchange keys between users, which makes PGP much easier to use. This is because PGP is based on a powerful new technology called "public key" cryptography.

PGP combines the convenience of the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) public key cryptosystem with the speed of conventional cryptography, message digests for digital signatures, data compression before encryption, good ergonomic design, and sophisticated key management. And PGP performs the public-key functions faster than most other software implementations. PGP is public key cryptography for the masses.

Other things about PGP

E-cash

A security system similar to the one used fot the PGP-keys, i.e. the RSA crytography using large prime numbers, is also used by DigiCash for e-cash -- electronic cash.

"Founded in 1990, DigiCash has pioneered development of electronic payment mechanisms for open, closed and network systems that provide security and privacy. DigiCash's technology is based on patented advances in public key cryptography developed by the Company's founder and Managing Director, Dr. David Chaum. Throughout its history DigiCash has developed leading edge products and partnered with companies to provide advanced payment systems technology to the market." [Taken from the "company background" page of the previous Web site of DigiCash; do not know where that page has gone, but there is something like this here.]

"Ecash is designed for secure payments from any personal computer to any other workstation, over email or Internet. Ecash has the privacy of paper cash, while achieving the high security required for electronic network environments exclusively through innovations in public key cryptography. In the past DigiCash has pioneered such cash for chip cards and electronic wallets, always with a tamper-resistant chip for storing the value. Now we present the first software only solution: ecash." [Taken from the "about ecash" page of the previous Web site of DigiCash; do not know where that page has gone.]

The acceptance of the possibilities and security of e-cash has been boosted greatly by the fact the the Deutsche Bank -- Germany's largest and most powerfull bank -- will accept e-cash from its customers soon. [Source: de Volkskrant of 3 June 1996.] To me the e-cash system sounds very good and I hope e-cash will make it.
Here's a ling to a large number of documents about electronic money transfer across Internet.

Things about PGP taken from PGP(tm) User's Guide, version 2.6.2i (11 October 94). Software and documentation © Copyright 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann. All rights reserved.

 
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last modified: 26 February 2000