From: Ron Davis <rondavis@datawatch.com>

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What is everyones opinion of the best encryption software forthe Mac? Frederic Halper fhalper@pilot.njin.net

MacPGP, available by anonymous ftp from the soda.berkeley.edu site, is the only one I know of using public key methods, and hence the only one of real interest to Cypherpunks.

I find this to be a strange statement. Do we have no interest in non-public key methods? Seems the Cypherpunks should have an interest in all forms of crypto. Most users don't currently use public key becuase they just want to keep thier boss from sitting down at thier computer and reading the resumes they wrote for other companies. This can be accomplished with symetrical crypto just as well, if not faster than PGP.

Cypherpunks do have an interest in all forms of crypto, but there are very good reasons why public key is more desirable than symmetric for "our purposes." This is at the very root of the crypto revolution and the cypherpunk ethos. Have you done the basic reading? (That's a serious question, not sarcasm.) PGP _does_ symmetric crypto.

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Commerical products (like the various "Kent Marsh" products) are mostly DES-or-weaker and are oriented toward local file protection. (MacPGP will do that, too, of course).

Cryptomatic does come with Triple DES which is still a very strong method.

And MacPGP comes with IDEA, which is at least as strong (as far as we know). And of course, it does all the public-key encryption and key-management as well. A pretty incredible package, considering its size and cost.

Unfortunatly MacPGP's biggest draw back is that its interface is poor and it is hard to use.

I disagree.

Can't stop without mentioning that my company make a product called Citadel which does DES encryption.

Hmmm... --Dave.