Over the last few weeks, I've fallen down the GnuPG rabbit-hole. GnuPG, short for "the Gnu Privacy Guard" (long for "GPG"), is a tool for asymmetric encryption, meaning that you can use it to create messages that only a specific recipient is able to read. More concretely, the system relies on private and public keys, where you can use someone's public key to encrypt a message that can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key. Not only have I made my own keys - I have now progressed to the stage where my emails, address book, calendar and passwords are all secured by a GnuPG foundation, with my private keys stored on a tiny device that I can carry with me. Bad idea? Maybe. Totally awesome? Abso-fricking-lutely!

In forthcoming articles, I'll go into some detail about how I have – and you can – set up this system, starting with how to create your own GPG keys. In the meantime, feel free to send me an encrypted message using my public key. It's the cryptic-looking thing at the bottom of my website footer, beginning with 0x. You can paste that key, along with the message you want to encrypt, in an online tool like this one and then copy the message into an email to me. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!