What is BinHex CryPactor?

BinHex CryPactor is an email encryption software program that was developed in the early 1990s for Mac OS operating systems. It enables users to encrypt their email messages and digitally sign them using public key cryptography techniques including RSA and DSA.

The main purpose of CryPactor is to provide confidentiality and authentication for email communications. The encryption ensures that only the intended recipient who has the correct private key can decrypt and read the contents of the email. The digital signature provides authentication to confirm that the message did indeed come from the expected sender and has not been altered in transit.

Some key features of CryPactor include 256-bit Blowfish encryption for the message body and attachments, 1280 and 448 bit RSA encryption for the message keys, integration with popular Mac OS email clients like Eudora, interactive passphrase quality checking, and key expiration settings. It was created by BinHex Inc which was a company focused on Macintosh encryption software in the 90s.

While CryPactor was popular in its time, email encryption technology has evolved considerably over the past couple decades. Modern solutions tend to use more advanced cryptographic algorithms and support multiple platforms beyond Mac OS. However, CryPactor represents one of the early commercial efforts to bring public key cryptography to average email users on the Macintosh desktop.

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