Why use PGP?

Perhaps the best argument for using PGP as a base for Telnet authentication is that it implements strong cryptographical algorithms and the source code is available for free (for non-commercial use). This greatly simplifies the work of implementing this type of authentication. Other important arguments are:

• Many organizations already use PGP for encrypting and authentication of their electronic mail. They already have the basic PGP ``infrastructure'' and key handling disciplines worked in.
• If a company has a license to use RSA (only required in the US and Canada) and IDEA, money and paperwork can be saved, by using no other patented algorithms.
• It is possible to incorporate PGP public keys in the X.500 directory hierarchy [17]. This will simplify PGP public key distribution.
• By using PGP for creating digital signatures and encryption, we get a well defined message format which is easy to exchange between different processor architectures.
• PGP includes highly optimized routines for generating key-pairs and for symmetric and asymmetric encryption and decryption.
• The program has been is use for some years now, so most bugs have been found and removed.