Why would you wish to use PGP Encryption?
In simple terms, it protects your privacy with respect to digital communications and data transfer.
In practical terms, you would use PGP Encryption with Willowgrove Consulting's services because you are sending us sensitive information, likely medical or financial documents and details.
We have always been pretty hot on maintaining privacy boundaries and ensuring we are looking after people's information we have been entrusted with, and we can never be sure who is watching our communications.
When I am in a car talking to my partner about how we could manage GPS and maps for an older couple we know, I mentioned maybe loading the Tom Tom app on a phone and running from there potentially without the need for data services, which they don't typically pay for. That following week, without searching for GPS tools and services, all of my digital information services started advertising the Tom Tom app to me!
We're not being overly paranoid when these things happen. Thus, we are providing this extra layer of security for you when sending us information.
How do you use PGP Encryption?
To be fair, it isn't as easy as it could be, but it is way better than it has been in the past.
- This article from Make Tech Easier is a good overview of how this works and how to get started: PGP Encryption: How It Works
- To send a message to J-P, you don't have to generate any keys; you use the public key below to encrypt your message to J-P and send the resulting file as a normal email.
- When J-P receives your message, he is able to decrypt it with his private key because you used J-P's public key to encrypt your file(s).
- If you wish to have your reply emails encrypted by J-P, you will need to create a public and private key pair and share your public key with J-P so he can do the reverse by encrypting messages you can then decrypt with your private key.
Is this necessary?
Probably not. All of us have been using secure mail services for over a decade, meaning that the messages between the email app, intermediate network equipment, and mail servers are encrypted, and we have not seen or heard of any breaches of email communications.
But that's not to say it can't happen.
- Anyone with access to the servers and routers in between could potentially access messages because the equipment in between is able to read the whole message, thus the weakness of typical internet traffic security when using HTTPS and on-the-fly encrypted protocols.
- The risk of this happening is very low, and largely, people have security from anonymity. If you were actively targeted for some reason, then that becomes a different story, and that's likely to be politically exposed people and a select few high-profile members of the public rather than Joe and Jane on the street.
- Do email accounts get exposed? Yes, they do. However, this is more about weak usernames and passwords for the account than it is about intercepted communications between you and a recipient.
For the majority of email communication with Willowgrove Consulting, encrypting messages as attachments before sending is over the top.
- However, ACC and insurers often send us documents and communications in password-protected zip files. This is a less robust level of security than PGP encryption, but it is significantly better than not using anything at all.
- If this sounds easier, ZIP your email message & attachments using a strong password, then SMS message J-P the password to the ZIP file when you email J-P the actual ZIP file.
Clearly, there are different levels of security that can be employed for different levels of risk. This page is about outlining your options on how you can enhance your sending security with Willowgrove Consulting, so that we can do our utmost best in protecting your privacy.
If you wish to send a secure message to J-P, the following is J-P's public PGP Key for encrypting your message(s)
J-P's PGP Public Key:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
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GEGzentxjmOK6P29DnClvx89Hh532Q==
=3ndV
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
If you have questions about security and encryption or need to discuss them, please contact J-P directly.