Well done on arriving here! By reading this article you’re learning how you can protect your information while enjoying the connectivity of the Web. Below, you’ll learn a little bit about file encryption and how you can use digital “keys” to lock and unlock files. Basically, with encryption, you can host a file in plain sight and yet keep it safely unreadable by anyone.
The cPanel that comes with your hosting account lets you easily set up keypairs you can use for encrypting files. In this article, we’ll demonstrate how you can easily set up keypairs associated with your name and an email account you’ve already created.
Why Do This and How Does it Work?
Whether or not you would ever need to encrypt files is your call. Do you have secrets? Some people encrypt email messages, some people encrypt journals and logbooks. The kind of encryption keys cPanel lets you create use GPG, a non-proprietary encryption protocol. These keys can be associated with your name and email address so that you can be personally identified with their use. Using these keys, people can encrypt files or messages that only you can unlock. Likewise, you can encrypt files for your friends.
However, though you can create these keys in cPanel, you will need to use these keys with an application like GNU Privacy Guard to handle the actual encryption process. There are many file encryption apps out there, and most of them are free.
How to Create a Keypair with cPanel
You will need access to a cPanel account in order to complete these steps.
- Log into cPanel
- Click Encryption under the Email section
- Fill in the fields to create the keys
After completing the key creation process, you will see the public and private keys for that email account listed below. Though these keys are generated for an email account, you can use them for encrypting any files, not just emails.
Email Encryption Options
In order to use these keys for encrypting emails, you will need to import them into your favorite email client. Be sure to check out the guides below for more information on how to set up email encryption:
We hope you enjoy encrypting and decrypting your files! Let us know about the fun you’re having in the comments below.
