Secure Transactions at Boston University

If you want your www.bu.edu site's visitors to complete secure credit card transactions or submit confidential information, you need to use a secure form. When the visitor clicks the Submit button on a secure form, their sensitive information is sent to the e-mail address you specify in encrypted format. The program you use to set up that e-mail encryption is called PGP.

Introduction
Overview of the six steps to securing transactions using PGP at Boston University.

Download and install PGP on your computer
Download a free copy of the PGP software and learn how to install it on your computer.

Create a public and private key
PGP uses keys to encrypt and decrypt information. Learn how to create your key pair.

Back up your key pair and passphrase and upload your public key
Back up your key pair in a separate format (e.g, a floppy disk), along with your passphrase. Also, upload your public key to your web site.

Create secure forms
Learn how to prepare your forms to use PGP and SSL.

Notify us of public key location
Notify us of your public key's web address via our PGP request form.

Test your forms
Testing your form's e-mail output and secure links.