Osnabrück, Düsseldorf (Germany), 2009-08-12
Today, Gpg4win 2.0.0 was announced on www.gpg4win.org. It is a crypto software for Windows that can be downloaded without fees. Version 2.0.0 follows version 1.1.4 as a stable product line and includes the progress of the last two years of development.
GpgOL - a plugin for MS Outlook - can handle MIME emails now, making signing and encrypting attachments much easier compared to the last version. Support for S/MIME has also been added for the first time. GpgOL has been completely rewritten for this functionality. Now Gpg4win supports both standard crypto formats for Email: OpenPGP and S/MIME, both with modern 2048 bit RSA smart cards.
S/MIME uses a hierarchical concept of trust, meaning users have to acquire an x509 certificate signed by a trustworthy authority in a public key infrastructure (PKI). Many medium and large organisations already use a PKI making Gpg4win2 interesting for them for end-to-end email security.
Of course Gpg4win2 also aims to be an easy-to-use application for private users, who wish to encrypt or sign their email or files under Windows with S/MIME or OpenPGP.
Besides GpgOL (for Outlook 2003 and 2007) the Gpg4win package contains the standalone email application Claws Mail, GpgEX, GnuPG, 175-page documentation and a choice of two certificate managers. Gpg4win2 works together with "Kontact for Windows", a Free Software groupware and email application and supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. In addition to English, all dialogs are available in German. The reworked and updated documentation called Gpg4win Compendium is available in German only. An English version is planned for the end of the year.
Gpg4win stands for "GNU Privacy Guard for Windows" and is a collection of existing Free Software (Open Source) components and is licensed under the GNU GPL. Version 2.0.0 can be downloaded with accompanying source code from http://www.gpg4win.org . Using the software for any purpose, analysing, modifying and redistributing it is explicitly allowed and encouraged. Redistributors are required to provide the source code - the usual rule with the GNU GPL.
The central crypto-component of Gpg4win2 is GnuPG2. Both certificate managers (GPA and Kleopatra) support OpenPGP and S/MIME. In the medium term, these cross-platform components are intended to improve the usability of crypto solutions because they offer certificate selection services to all applications.
GpgEX adds crypto-operations on files to the context menu of the (32bit) Microsoft Explorer.
Observers had hoped for an earlier release of Gpg4win 2.0.0 because several beta versions had been released throughout the last 12 months. The developers had to overcome difficulties with the new concept of the combined certificate manager Kleopatra and with the windows platform. The proprietary software Outlook also posed a problem for GpgOL development because the built-in MIME functions do not always work as expected.
New users can check out the compendium or go to the public mailing lists or web forums for technical questions or to give feedback to the Gpg4win community.
Makers of Gpg4win2 are the Germany based Free Software companies Intevation GmbH (Pproject coordination), g10 Code GmbH (Crypto, GpgOL, GpgEX, GPA) and KDAB (Kleopatra). They offer professional support, consulting and individual solution development for email security with Gpg4win.
Contact:
Emanuel Schütze, Intevation GmbH
Neuer Graben 17
49074 Osnabrück
Email: emanuel.schuetze@intevation.de
Tel: +49 541 - 335083 - 746