Hmmmm... I'm beginning to wonder if we shouldn't someday be able to run public email in a sort of "parallel universe," an entirely separate mail system complete with built-in RSA encryption on every piece of mail. That way, we would no longer rely on the Internet, which, unless I am completely off the mark, basically still exists at the pleasure of ARPA and could be completely infiltrated and controlled by the NSA for all we know. Along similar lines, has anyone heard the latest status on the gigabytes of email generated by the Bush White House which are currently in danger of being erased before anyone can get a peek at them? Imagine the damning evidence that exists in those documents! I had heard something about a voluntary freeze on the erasure until the matter can be decided in some Federal Court, but that strikes me like suing your local City Government in Municipal Court after being hit by a Municipal Bus - Bush's cronies will probably invoke some executive priviledge and weasel off with 'em. I wonder if such stuff will ever be released under the Freedom of Information Act (probably not in our lifetimes, but just the threat would make me happy)? Hey, a guy can _dream_ can't he? dave
Hmmmm...
I'm beginning to wonder if we shouldn't someday be able to run public email in a sort of "parallel universe," an entirely separate mail system complete with built-in RSA encryption on every piece of mail. That way, we would no longer rely on the Internet, which, unless I am completely off the mark, basically still exists at the pleasure of ARPA and could be completely infiltrated and controlled by the NSA for all we know.
Personaly (mostly before pgp) I used to set up direct uucp connections to people I *had* have secure email with (I once had some sensitive email intercepted thus causing *much* trouble for me). Since alot of my friends have unix boxes (Sun/SCO/386bsd/etc...) uucp is alot easer. -Pete PS: If anyone wants a uucp connection send me email PPS: once I get my sendmail.cf cleaned up I can add people to my domain and I will set up a remailer.
That way, we would no longer rely on the Internet, which, unless I am completely off the mark, basically still exists at the pleasure of ARPA and could be completely infiltrated and controlled by the NSA for all we know.
You are completely off the mark. Much of the Internet is privately owned and controlled, and most of what is government controlled (including the backbone) is controlled by the NSF, not DARPA. What is military controlled is essentially an island. None of our packets traverse that part of the net. (Of course, the NSA could still be watching our packets, and there is much speculation that they actively do so on international links. But the domestic links are not owned by the DoD directly.) And what parallel universe would you use. The Telcos? The FBI wiretap proposal should show you how good an idea that is. Unless you want to run your own physically secure wire (intractable), you need encryption, so you might as well use the Internet. Even if it is NSA-controlled, which I doubt. Marc
participants (3)
-
deltorto@aol.com
-
Marc Horowitz
-
shipley@tfs.COM