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4 min readNov 25, 2025

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PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is one of the oldest and most trusted tools for encryption, which journalists, activists, and cybersecurity professionals rely on to keep communications safe.

PGP uses a pair of keys, a public key and a private key.

Think of it like this:

• Your public key is your mailbox. Anyone can drop an encrypted message in it.
• Your private key is your key to that mailbox. Only you can open it.

So if someone encrypts a message using your public key, only you can decrypt and read it with your private key.

Create Your PGP Key Pair

In a Linux system, you can generate your key pair using the terminal or the graphical app called Passwords and Keys. For this example, I will use the terminal using the following command.

gpg --full-generate-key

You’ll be asked to choose:

• The type of key (choose RSA).
• The key size (4096 bits is safest).
• An expiration date, name, email, and a passphrase.