My dilemma,
I need to send, deemed confidential, information via e-mail (SMTP). This information is sitting as a file on AIX. Typically I can send this data as a e-mail attachment via what we term a "mail filter" using telnet. I now would like to somehow encrypt the data and send it to a e-mail address external to the company via the internet to a recipient that is probably using Microsoft Outlook. Obviously I what him to somehow decrypt it to be able to use/view the attachment. I have looked at PKI, but the concept is not totally clear to me, as where is the public and private keys held, what key is exchanged and when, how is this done in the context of sending e-mail using SMTP via telnet (is the key an attachment) how does the recipient know this is a key encrypted file and what key to use, how does this relate to the key in his possession, does he need extra software (example). I was looking at tar, compress, gzip, pax and other standard UNIX commands to achieve a password protected file, but have had no luck thus far. Please can you shed some light on at leased some of my question.
Regards