Shortly about the project

Enigmalok is a Web-based e-mail service that lets you send and receive email in total security. Enigmalok messages, and their attachments, are encrypted using Open PGP standard algorithms. These algorithms, combined with Enigmalok's unique key management system, offer users unrivalled levels of security. Enigmalok's security is end-to-end; messages are encrypted before leaving the sender's computer and remain encrypted until after they arrive on the recipient's machine, where the contents are automatically decrypted.

Enigmalok's encryption works automatically, transparently and seamlessly, requiring no specialized computer skills or knowledge. Encrypting a message is as simple as clicking a mouse.

How PGP encryption works

PGP encryption uses public-key cryptography and includes a system which binds the public keys to a user name. The first version of this system was generally known as a web of trust to contrast with the X.509 system which uses a hierarchical approach based on certificate authority and which was added to PGP implementations later. Current versions of PGP encryption include both alternatives through an automated key management server.

Encryption/decryption

PGP message encryption normally uses both asymmetric key encryption and symmetric key encryption algorithms.

Commonly, when encrypting a message, the sender uses the public key half of the recipient's key pair to encrypt a symmetric cipher session key. That session key is used, in turn, to encrypt the plaintext of the message. There are several other operational modes (eg, symmetric key operation only), but these are less commonly used.

The recipient of a PGP-encrypted message decrypts the session key using his private key (the session key was encrypted by the sender using his public key). Next, he decrypts the ciphertext of the message using the session key.

Use of two ciphers in this way was chosen, despite higher complication, in part because of the very considerable difference in operating speed between asymmetric key and symmetric key ciphers (the difference is often a factor of 1000 or more). This approach also makes it easily possible to send the same encrypted message to two or more recipients.

The entire encryption and decryption operations are completely automated in current PGP desktop versions. Many PGP users' public keys are available to all from the many PGP key servers around the world, most of which coordinate their records so as to act as mirror sites for each other.