PGP Encryption Support

Credit Clear supports PGP encryption for input files and attachments, ensuring secure and private data transmission. This documentation explains how it works and the optional file-signing feature for clients.

What is PGP Encryption?

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption protocol that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. It is widely used to encrypt and decrypt texts, emails, files, and directories to enhance security.

In addition to encryption, PGP supports digital signatures to sign your encrypted message or file with a private key. This way, the receiver can tell if the content of the message has been changed.

Steps for PGP Encryption with Credit Clear

1. Key Generation: Credit Clear will generate a unique private key and public key for PGP encryption and decryption. The public key will be shared with the client.
2. File Encryption: The client will use the provided public key to encrypt the file and then upload it via SFTP or web upload. The client can optionally sign the file with their private key as explained in the "File Signing" section.
3. Naming Convention: The encrypted file must adhere to the predetermined naming convention for the input file or attachment, appending the ".pgp" extension as a suffix. For instance, an input file named "Contoso_20220101.csv" would be renamed to "Contoso_20220101.csv.pgp" after encryption.
4. File Decryption: Credit Clear will use their private key to decrypt and process the file.

File Signing

Clients can optionally sign their files before encryption to provide authentication and integrity verification. Here's how it works:

1. Digital Signature Creation: The client creates a digital signature using their private key. The client digitally signs the file using the private key before encrypting the file using Credit Clear public key.
2. Signature Verification: The client shares their public key with Credit Clear. Credit Clear can verify the signature using the public key, ensuring the file has not been altered and confirming the client's identity.