PGP is often thought of as an encryption system, but your private key is a digital signature that can prove who your message comes from, as well as showing that it hasn’t been tampered with.

The reason a Public Key Infrastructure doesn’t look like a widespread identity system is that it needs a web of trust; if somebody you know has signed my PGP key, then you take their word that I am who I say I am. That works well for close groups of friends – or for the corporations and government departments around the world who rely on PKIs based on the commercial PGP offerings or the OpenPGP SDK that’s now available.

At The Register.

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