PGP - Public Key

PGP - Public Key

If you would like some more information about PGP and Public/Private Keys, see Bill Standley's web page. The PGP link below used to contain excellent information, too (and still might). Sadly Network Associates has "improved" it.

The gibberish at the bottom of this page is my Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Public Key.

What's it for?

Decoding private messages from me.
Verify that something I sent you was authentic and not tampered with.
Sending a private message to me (but I'll need your public key to read it).

How do I use it?

Once you've obtained your copy of PGP (while it's still legal to do so), install the software, then click here (updated Thursday, June 17, 1999 12:30 PM) to place my public key on your key chain.

If that doesn't work, scroll down to the bottom of this page and copy my public key manually.

Some tips

Here are some things I've learned about creating your key. I ended up scrapping (revoking) my original key and creating a new one. If you search for "Berkeley Johnston" on the PGP server, you'll see my old and new keys. Use them for reference.

Here's my current entry. Click to see the full image including my revoked entries, too.

Use your full name when you create your key. Even though "Berkeley Johnston" is a unique name, there are at least two others. However, "Berkeley MacRae Johnston" is far more unique. Some day my son will be old enough to distrust the government and (if he takes this advice) his key won't be confused with mine.
Don't add your email address to your main key name. Things change. Even though I consider "berkeley@industryfigure.com" to be my permanent address, it might not be. Although having a bogus email address won't invalidate my keys, it would be confusing.
Add your nicknames/common names to your new key. If my key was only listed as "Berkeley MacRae Johnston" and you searched for "Berkeley Johnston" you would come up empty. Fortunately for you, I added "Berkeley Johnston <berkeley@industryfigure.com>" and now you can find me! Plus you know that I'm an IndustryFigure, so now you can be doubly sure that it's me.
Associate your common names with your email addresses. People at Veritas know "Michael P Berger" as "Mike" so he added a "Mike Berger <mike.berger@veritas.com>" to his key. Now if I search for "Mike Berger" I'll find him and I'll know it's him because of his veritas.com address.
Add a photograph. An image of you can help identify you to your friends ("Is this the John Smith I'm searching for, or just another random John Smith?").
Be sure to "Send to... Domain Server" (upload) your modified key to the PGP server.
Be sure to "Update" (download) your key once in while. Friends might have signed it.

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