FireGPG – a GnuPG extension for Firefox
I’ve been waiting for an extension like this for years. FireGPG lets you encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify text using GPG from the context menu. Currently, it only works with Gmail, but that’s fine since that’s what I use for most of my important email.
At some point last year, I switched from Gmail’s browser interface to using it with Thunderbird, so I could make use of the Enigmail extension, as well as pull in all my other email addresses (work, domains, spam-pits) in one place and I think I’ll continue to use it, but the ability to just browse to Gmail and not have to copy, paste, fire up a terminal, copy and paste again is absolutely great.
FireGPG currently works with Windows and Linux. OSX is out of luck, but I see on that on the exension’s page that the developers are actively looking for help in porting it. Awesome.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I’m not familiar with GPG, Do you use it with all of your correspondence, or does the receiving person need a key? It also encrypts your local files within thunderbird?
April 12th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Here’s a link to what’s probably more than you’ll ever want to know about GnuPG (aka GPG): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnupg
I do not use it with all of my correspondence, though that would be ideal. I do rely on it heavily for authentication purposes. The OS I use (Ubuntu) makes use of GPG keys to authenticate trusted software repositories. I also use GPG to encrypt any personal files placed on portable media like thumb drives, in case I should lose them in transit.
Yes, GPG is dependent on the public and private key method.
April 16th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I see its very handy on thumb drives. I’ll look into a system that might work well with Windows.