Timmy may decided to rant about crypto for a change. As always he exposes his complete lack of knowledge. "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net> writes:
* Most people don't think they're targets of wiretapping. They don't think the FBI is tapping their phones, and they've never even heard of the NSA, let alone GCHQ, NRO, SDECE, etc.
* "What have I got to hide?"
So, demonstrate. Pick up conversations on cellular phones, transcribe the embarassing ones, post them to Usenet via anonymous remailers. Sniff the e-mail passing through your site and post it anonymously. That'll make the news and make people aware that they need privacy.
(I like to cite the evolution of metal safes. Mosler Safe Company says the driving force behind safe design, and deployment to merchants and banks, was the _insurance business_. Instead of preaching about the value of increased security, the insurers--who knew how to take the long view--offered rate discounts if stronger safes were installed. Voila, stronger safes. Until similar incentives exist for data--e.g., insurance for loss of patient records, confidential dossiers, etc.--I doubt most people will listen to the "preaching.")
The pressure from insurers might work in strange ways. E.g. in many locales the law mandates 10% off car theft insurance premiums for cars that have certain kinds of alarms. According to most authorities the alarms are totally useless, but almost all cars in NYC have them, and they go off in the middle of the night when someone walks by the car - truly stupid. Similarly the companies that insure doctors for against malpractice suits might say one day that all patient records in a computer must be adequately encrypted in the case PC gets stolen - or they might mandate that nothing is encrypted w/o some sort of GAK escrow. And this won't even be gubmint-mandated.
* Look at how few people--myself included--routinely use crypto (digital signatures, etc.)
It's because you're an idiot.
P.S. I'll be away at the Hackers Conference in Santa Rosa, CA for the next several days, and then travelling for the American holiday of Thanksgiving Day. So, I'll be mostly away from the list for a while.
That's good. --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps