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For personal security, I have created a pair of digital keys. These keys are permanently matched to each other. One is the private key, and I have the only copy of it. The other is a public key, which is published here.
Using the public key, you can encrypt any information you want. Once encrypted with my public key, I can decypher the information with my private key. Nobody else can possibly decypher your message to me, because nobody else can use my private key.
PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy, the original product that creates and uses this type of digital key. Getting a copy of PGP is reasonably cheap, and integrates into your email or filesystem with additional helpful tools. Check out http://www.pgpi.com for some more information about PGP encryption and security.
Or, better yet, try the GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) for a Free Software alternative (free as in liberty, as well as in cost) to the commercialized PGP product. They're generally mix-and-match compatible, and data encrypted with PGP can be used by GPG seamlessly. More information about GNU and GPG may be found at http://www.gnupg.org.
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