Re: For PGP Users-Likes and Dislikes of PGP

On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 12:16:41 +0200, Sebastian Gottschalk
<seppi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Hello? The entire concept is one big lack of security. There's
absolutely no verification that some key actually belongs to the sender.

You have to remember that SecExMail is a peer-to-peer system and it
does give you the option for fully manual operation, which means that
you have to manually exchange the key with the other party using
chanels other than e-mail, such as installing it on a thumbnail drive
and physically giving it to the other party, like you would your house
key.

The system, using other products from Bytefusion, can also be set up
so that if I want to send an e-mail to Sebastian Gottschalk, I first
have to plug the thumbnail drive or smart card that Sebastian
Gottschalk gave me into my USB port. The physical token is treated
with the same care that one would treat a friends house key given for
safekeeping. The system can be set up many ways, depending upon your
level of paranoia or level of user ignorance.

My point is that if PGP Corporation, and GnuPG for that matter, want
to improve their abominations so you don't need a degree in computer
science just to install the software, let alone figure out what you
are supposed to do with it after it is installed, the products from
Bytefusion might be a good reference model to start with.

For Joe Q. Public, the concept of a "key", as the term is used in
cryptography, is foreign and beyond comprehension if it can not be
physically touched, felt, or lost, so don't expect Joe Q. Public to
understand what you mean by the statement I've quoted above, if they
can't phyiscally hold the "key" in their hot little hand. It doesn't
matter how good PGP or GnuPG are from a cryptographic point of view,
if the user can't grasp the concept of proper key management -- just
stop someone on a busy city street, ask them if they've "signed their
key" and observe how fast they dial 911 on their cell phone to have
you carted off to the lunatic asylum -- sane people don't sign their
keys because if a key is physically lost, the burglar who finds it
will then know who it belongs to and will go to your house and rob
you. Its better to leave your key unsigned. See? Smart people don't
sign their keys. If you think you are going to re-educate the public,
I wish you Good Luck.

With the Bytefusion system, you:
a) Download the software from their web site. (Everyone knows how to
download stuff from the web.)

b) Install the software by clicking on the .exe file you've
downloaded. (Everyone knows click a mouse button.)

c) Move the POP3 and SMTP server entries from your MUA to SecExMail.

If you are Joe Q. Public, Step c) takes about two hours -- 1 h 59 m to
build up the courage to do it, including about half a dozen calls to
various friends and "computer gurus" asking if it is safe to do
without screwing up one's computer, and about 1 minute to actually do.
After you struggle through Step c), the system just works, and you can
forget about it.

Have your granny try it. She might like it.


.

Loading