How To Encrypt Files And Folders In Linuxmint Using Seahorse

kip-
  14 years ago
  13

Seahorse is a Gnome front end for GnuPG - the Gnu Privacy Guard program. It is a tool for secure communications and data storage. Data encryption and digital signature creation can easily be performed through a GUI and Key Management operations can easily be carried out through an intuitive interface.

In addition it includes an agent for storing private passphrases, as well as a GnuPG and OpenSSH key manager.

Using this small powerful application in Linuxmint (Gnome), you can quickly secure confidential files. Here is how:

1) Install Seahorse if you dont have installed allready and then install Seahorse-plugins. If you have Seahorse installed allready just install Seahorse-plugins.

2) Restart your pc.

3) After restart go to System > Accessories > Passwords and Encryption Keys and select File > New > PGP Key, then enter your name, email. You may also change the encryption method (or just leave the default option) and the encryption key length, but be aware that the longer the key, the more it will take to secure a file (but obviously, the file will be more secure). When you finish with this, you'll have to enter a passwords. That's it.

4) Now, to encrypt a a file or folder, right click it and select "Encrypt". This will pack the file / folder in an encrypted .pgp file. Double click that file to unpack your encrypted files (it will require a password, obviously)

That's it.

Comments
AndyTN 10 years ago

Sorry, Seahorse if broken. Does not recognize my PGP key. Linux Mint 14


kip- 11 years ago

@puiqpuiq hi

well I am using debian.. I am sorry but I did not like LMDE and linuxmint 10 so I did switch to debian 6 and today I did switch to debian 7 :) guess why? too many problems with my small freedom in mint.. however mint I run mint in virtual.. couldn’t find any way how to do it man.. sorry


puigpuig 11 years ago

With Linux Mint 13 and seahorse-nautilus, I can encrypt well single files, but not folders.
Can you explain how to encrypt whole folders?
Thank you!


Akira_69 12 years ago

cleary and superB


LONNIEFUTURE 13 years ago

Thanks this really helped and its simple to understand.


kazztan0325 13 years ago

I did not know how to encrypt files / folders until now.
This tutorial is very useful for me.
Thank you!


bentinc 13 years ago

I dont see what the restart should be good for. To enable use of the plugin in the file manager it should be enough to restart nautilus ("nautilus --quit" in a terminal or a new login), or not?