Encryption Experts and Snake Oilers Quacking Like Governments
Capitalizing on the comsec frenzy, several sites, probably many, are offering to encrypt for those who do not want install programs or find them too difficult to use. All appear to promise that no records, private and public keys, email addresses or content will be kept. Trust them. For example, here's one used to send encrypted messages: https://www.igolder.com/pgp/encryption/ This approach suggests that the renewed crypto wars have again bred a new round of opportunities to beguile those who yearn for comsec but do not know how to get it, nor how to evaluate the offerings, in particular those provided by US producers which they doubt are free of government manipulation. But they also doubt that any cryptosystem is free of that, thanks to the NSA revelations of global cooperation among nations to do what NSA does, and the failure of crypto experts and firms to fully disclose their aid to governments, before and after Snowden's revelations. So the downside of Snowden's revelations is that there is considerable suspicion that all crypto is compromised, and, worse, that snake oil is not really different from the good stuff for the ordinary user who lacks the technical skills to distinguish them. And that comsec experts are in league with authorities to dupe the public by excessive warning of snake oil to peddle their own offerings, that is, experts and snake oilers are doing what governments do. Trust Snowden, trust experts, trust governments, but distrust snake oil. Wait, users say, how can we tell the difference when they all quack like ducks.
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John Young