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diff --git a/teaching/encryption/01-encryption-101-basics.md b/teaching/encryption/01-encryption-101-basics.md deleted file mode 100755 index 082016c..0000000 --- a/teaching/encryption/01-encryption-101-basics.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,70 +0,0 @@ -Title: 01. Encryption 101: Basics -Date: 2013-07-26 20:31 -Category: Data Privacy -Tags: Guides -Slug: 01-encryption-101-basics -Status: published - -If you haven't lived under a rock for the past few weeks you'll have -heard about the NSA and PRISM essentially spying spying on the entire -world. Now, I will write an article about why this is actually upsetting -and there are good reasons to protect ones privacy even if you have -"nothing to hide". In this tutorial I want to show you that encrypting -your communications and computers is a good way to protect yourself but -hardly the only thing you can do. And even if you encrypt everything in -your life you will leave behind a lot of meta data on the internet. -Enough to reconstruct what you were doing, what you think, who you would -vote for etc. - -In this series I want to show you a little bit how you can protect -yourself. However, in this first post I want to explain you the basics -of cryptography. I won't go into detail about mathematical constructs, -you can read that on Wikipedia. But as an average person you won't need -that. Let's begin. - -There are different ways how to encrypt things. The two big ways I want -to talk about now is **symmetric** and **asymmetric** encryption. - -Let's look at symmetric encryption first: - - - -In symmetric encryption the user creates a key. That key is then being -used to encrypt but also decrypt a file. This makes the process of -encryption and decryption very fast, however also creates the problem -that the key needs to be transferred safely. If somebody got hold of the -key they could encrypt and decrypt files that they might not be able to. -Symmetric encryption is great for hard drive and large chunks of data. - -However this isn't very practical in communication with others. You want -others to be able to encrypt messages sending to you but be the only one -that can decrypt them again. This is the basic idea of asymmetric -encryption. The following schematic will explain. - - - -There is a pair of keys: one public, one private. The public key is -being used to encrypt a file. In practise this is the key that you send -out to other people. They encrypt the messages they send to you and then -send them to you. -The private key is the one you keep to yourself (private) and under no -circumstances send to any computer or device. Only transport it on -offline drives like USB sticks, SD cards or external hard drives. This -is the key that will allow you to decrypt messages sent to you. - -If you use asymmetric encryption in your communication you can encrypt -messages for others with their public keys and decrypt messages others -sent you with your private key. - - - -In following tutorials I will quickly show you how to encrypt messages -using PGP on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux, how to encrypt your hard drive -on Mac and Windows and also how to use encrypted instant messaging -services. After that I will show you ways to stay anonymous on the -internet and leave behind fewer clues about who you are and what you -were doing. Even if you have nothing to hide that doesn't mean that you -need to invite everybody into your private life! - -P.S. This tutorial series was inspired by my brothers short descriptions -about security [here](http://www.leandersabel.de/itsecurity/). |