But now the wait is over...

To the rescue comes "Code Rings & Secret Handshakes: Practical encryption for beginners".

This timesaving guide is from the author of The Hacker's Nightmare, widely regarded as the bible of computer and Internet security for novices and experts alike.

Author Bill Hely has established a reputation for translating complex technology issues into practical, easily understood projects, and his new encryption guide is no exception.

"Code Rings & Secret Handshakes" is a no-BS, 50-page, step-by-step, extensively illustrated tutorial that will have you using industrial strength encryption like an old pro on a single read-through."

As a consultant in online security and a long-time champion of privacy rights, I'm very concerned that new eavesdropping technology threatens your online privacy like never before.

ISPs and their staff, police, government agencies, etc. can now use an invasive new technology called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to view any data you send or receive across the Internet, including the CONTENTS of e-mail messages.

Many ISPs already quietly collect nformation derived from Deep Packet Inspection of their customers' data.

Some secretly sell that information to advertisers who will pay big money to be able to track your likes, dislikes and browsing habits.

And it's anybody's guess what the many "alphabet" agencies are up to -- the secretive government investigative arms such as: CIA, NSA, FBI, ATF and so on in the USA, and their equivalents in other countries.

Well, there is only one practical defence against Deep Packet Inspection, and that is ENCRYPTION.

Unfortunately, implementing encryption has never been easy, even for experienced computer users.

To overcome this problem I researched and wrote a step-by-step, fully illustrated tutorial that will have you using encryption like an old pro in under an hour.

This beginner's guide to practical encryption will show you how to encrypt your sensitive documents & files, thus absolutely protecting them from snoopers.

Privatize e-mail & other correspondence, attachments, plans, reports, spreadsheets, projections, strategy papers -- any file at all. Never again need you risk having sensitive information intercepted by unauthorized eyes.

The book was originally aimed at the small business market with a list price of US$47.

However I have become so concerned about the threat to privacy posed by the misuse of Deep Packet Inspection technologies that I have decided to make the tutorial available to everyone, completely free of charge.

There must be a catch!

Well, there is a small catch. Let me explain...

Two things you definitely want from any encryption method are:

1. A very high level of security -- that is, "uncrackability";
   
   
2. The ability to correspond with people who may be using a different encryption program. In other words, a recognized industry standard.

It simply isn't possible to meet both those requirements without using a professionally written program.

While there are such programs available free of charge, they are notoriously difficult to implement and often fiddly and inconvenient to use.

Phil Zimmermann, inventor of the world standard PGP encryption system, was clearly aware of this problem when he said :

For the past decade PGP has been the gold standard for email encryption, but we've always had trouble expanding beyond the power users because of ease-of-use problems".

My biggest challenge in introducing encryption to everyone, regardless of skill level, was to find a polished, easy to apply system with a simple and straightforward user interface. This was more difficult than I had originally anticipated because developers of encryption software seem to expect that their packages will only be installed into IT-supported business premises by IT professionals.

However, after much searching and many trials, I did find an inexpensive commercial solution that meets all requirements and is an ideal fit for personal or small-business use.

The encryption software described in the Guide is available as a free, full-featured, 15-day trial. The Guide will show you all you need to know in an hour, so you'll have plenty of free trial time left to experiment and discover for yourself the benefits of putting really powerful encryption to work in the interests of your security, safety and privacy.

Should you then make the decision to put encryption to work for you permanently, the cost of registering the actual encryption software that I and my friends, associates and clients use is very affordable.

And with the tutorial e-book now completely free, you won't have any problem enticing a friend or associate to download the book so the two of you can experiment with encrypted communications between you.

- Bill Hely
- Author: Code Rings & Secret Handshakes