Did you know…
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) started in 1991 as a grassroots response to growing email privacy concerns and has since evolved into the gold standard for hybrid public/private key encryption, digital signatures, and the well-known “web of trust” model that allows regular users to vouch for one another’s keys.
So What?
Most companies still rely on plaintext email for contracts, invoices, and sensitive employee or customer data. With regulators tightening breach-reporting timelines and customers demanding proof of care, leaving email unencrypted is now a brand risk, not just a tech risk. PGP’s open standard (OpenPGP) allows you to integrate proven cryptography without paying license fees, and its key-signing “web of trust” can also serve as a lightweight identity layer for partner portals or supplier ecosystems.
Now What?
- Pilot secure email for high-impact roles. Start with finance, legal, and executive teams; implement Outlook or Gmail plugins like Gpg4o or FlowCrypt and build familiarity with key management and signature verification.
- Embed PGP in DevSecOps pipelines. Use automatically generated key pairs to sign software artifacts, container images, or infrastructure-as-code files, ensuring that tampering is detected before production.
- Establish a partner “trust ring.” Host quarterly key-signing events (virtual or in person) with strategic suppliers; signed keys create an auditable record of due diligence and can simplify zero-trust API authentication.
Questions to consider
- Where in your value chain does sensitive data still travel via unencrypted email or file share?
- Could a customer or regulator trace a breach back to weak identity controls around email?
- How might the usability challenges of PGP (key storage, revocation, lost passwords) impede adoption—and what training or UX adjustments will you require?
- If quantum-ready encryption becomes mandatory, how will today’s PGP deployment influence (or obstruct) migration?