Reflecting on PGP and DNM messaging security - question

Reflecting on PGP and DNM messaging security: This may be a stupid question but since vendors post their public keys on their profiles, couldn't LE just grab the key then use it to decrypt messages? I guess I don't understand how encrypting a message keeps it secure when the key to break the PGP is available for anyone to see. What am I not understanding? Sorry if this is a stupid question.


Comments


[12 Points] samwhiskey:

You encrypt with the public key and the vendor decrypts with his private key. The public key can only be used for encrypting, not decrypting.


[7 Points] durgsrbad:

What a lot of people don't understand is the reason for using PGP. It's not that it is a 'permanent' security feature - sure, it can be, but you can't rely on a vendor/buyer not being compromised with easy access to their key - but it is for the actual sending of the message. We're trying to protect against 'man in the middle' attacks, ie somebody is listening in on the node you're relaying to/from on the Tor network as the message is sent.


[1 Points] R4ID:

there are two keys being used here. the public key and private key. vendors post their public key so people can encrypt a message to that "key" then only the private key that is matched to that public one can decrypt any messages sent to it :)


[1 Points] hdheuud:

Did you never watch the pgp video with the mailboxes?