Key Management
Key Management is anything that deals with managing the public and
private keys for your encryption program(s). Usually, you have at least one
private key pair, and the public keys of people/groups which you correspond
with.
Keys are simple to remember:
- If it's blue, and there are two keys, then it's your private key pair.
- If it's green, it's valid.
- If it's red, then it's not necessary valid (default setting)
- If it's grayed-out, then it's been revoked by the owner, or has expired, and should not
be used.
Names are mostly the same, you see little "heads" instead of keys.
Signatures are from other people who have signed that key, in effect
saying, "I trust
that this key I'm signing is valid." Signatures can be different colors from
the keys they sign, because they may be known and valid, but the key they've
signed for may not be.
You can generate your own private key
pairs with Generate Key Pairs. You
can also add new names (for new email addresses, name changes, etc..), you
can sign others keys, revoke your signatures, revoke your keys, and update
keys with a keyserver (if the encryption program supports that).