Introduction to OpenPGP
Before proceeding with how this works in practice, let me first start with a small formal introduction to the protocol these programs use, that is OpenPGP (RFC 4880 ).
OpenGPG
OpenPGP is the most used email encryption standard now a day. It uses public-keys in combination with symmetric cryptography and hash-function to provide security solutions for electronic communications and data storage. Any OpenPGP software should support data confidentiality, integrity and authentication.So OpenGPG is the standard or the protocol, while PGP and GPG are the applications you can use.
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