Apr 24 2009
Email Gobbledygook?
You may have received an email from me that has something similar to this in it:
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.orgiEYEARECAAYFAknx7xsACgkQSU8nHMQiwmnY1gCfSKalbwpjZbXCCZp1bvhd3Zb0
ZogAnRWhpzXCi4bnlCCFWjNa26jmQm4q
=5AAg
—–END PGP SIGNATURE—–
Or you may have a file attached called “signature.asc” with the same information inside it.
What is this stuff? This is my key signature, which verifies that I, William M. Ruhsam Jr., sent this email1 and that it has not been modified in transit by a third party. By checking a key server, you can verify that the signature attached to your email belongs to some person named William M. Ruhsam, Jr. who has registered there. If it’s very important that our communications remain unaltered you can arrange to verify this key with me by phone or in person.
All of this is explained in this post, and in this post, and in the wikipedia article on public key cryptography.
Do not adjust your set, all of this gobbledygook is perfectly normal. I’m making it a policy now to sign every email I send, just to start the habit. I encourage you to join me in doing the same.
1: Well, actually, what it means is someone in possession of my Private Key and passphrase sent this email, but as of right now, that should only be me.
