Today I am going to be looking GnuPG as a continuation of my delve into Practical Linux Topics. As described on https://www.gnupg.org/, GnuPG is a free implementation of OpenPGP which is used to encrypt and sign data and communications using a public/private key infrastructure. It can be used to encrypt and digitally sign emails, encrypt files, and to secure SSH tunnels. In this post I am going to look at some fundamental configuration and usage of GnuPG for encryption.  

When running a server of any volume, it is likely that there is sensitive data stored on it. Knowing how to destroy that data with confidence is an important skill for any system admin. Luckily Linux has several utilities that can be used to securely wipe partitions, drives, and even an entire server. The tools that I will be looking at are shred, dd, wipefs, and DBAN.