Chris Walter writes:
Hi Folks,
There is an interesting article by Simon Garfinkle in this morning's(Apr 2nd) electronic version of the San Jose Mercury news. Its on the index page so I don't think you need an account to read it.
The article deals with the new key management features and extensions in Viacrypt and how PRZ is upset since it allows employers to read their employees messages.
I read it this morning. The gist is that this new evil PGP lets your employer SPY ON EVERYTHING YOU DO! And was written in about that tone. I was disappointed by the article. I don't know if Simson is deluded about the use of Viacrypt PGP, or the article got hacked up by by ignorant/malicious editors, or my understanding of Viacrypt PGP is competely wrong. I thought the purpose to putting key escrow (that's real escrow not GAK) into PGP was to allow its use for business purposes. Often in business use you're not too concerned with keeping secrets from your employer or fellow employees, but do want to keep those secrets within the company. And there is a real concern that you might encrypt company-secret stuff and then fall off your motorcycle and get run over by a truck, leaving your securely-encrypted company secrets suddenly inaccessable to the company... Key escrow, with the keys held by the company, is designed to prevent this problem. The article failed to mention that you're not prevented from using a non-escrow PGP for personal secrets (could Viacrypt PGP prevent you from using PGP 2.6.2? I don't think so) and made it sound like Viacrypt PGP is designed to allow nosy employers to spy on employees encrypted email. I guess it would, if the employers were that nosy and the employees dumb enough to use company-provided escrowed PGP to send personal secrets. But that theory's about as credible as the Clipper chip proponents's "dumb crooks" theory where crooks would want encrypted phones but be dumb enough to forget that the Government held the keys... Simson's the one main-line journalist who writes about internet and computer issues that I still think has a clue, and has written a pretty good book about PGP, so I'd be suprised if he got this so wrong. On the other hand, I haven't used this new Viacrypt PGP and I'm going on what I think that escrowed PGP is really good for. Maybe my feeling about that have blinded me to reality. Or, most likely, the editor(s) hacked the story up either out of ignorance or to present a viewpoint that they had already decided they want to present, truth be damned. If I wanted to present a conspiracy theory about the government wanting to discourage use of PGP for businesses, this would be the place to do it. If PGP gains a foothold in the businessplace it'll be nearly impossible to eradicate, given the fact that (big) business essentially runs the country. Key escrow will make PGP a lot more usefull to businesses, increasing its use. I'm sure you can fill in the rest of the theory.
-- Eric Murray ericm@lne.com ericm@motorcycle.com http://www.lne.com/ericm PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03 92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF