fido encryption.

[Jim Cannell]

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In a msg on <Sep 30 06:18>, mdiehl at triton.unm.edu of 1:216/21 writes:

 m>      Hi all!  I just conducted an experiment whose results 
 m> indicate how far we (Cypherpunks) have to go in educating the 
 m> American Public WRT encryption technology:  

Agreed.  There is a large education project ahead.


 m> I send an encrypted message via fidonet! (awk!)
 m>  
 m>      I had heard a rumor that fidonet forbade encrypted e-mail, 
 m> but I had to find out for myself.  Well, they do.  Now I 
 m> understand that these sysops are spending their own money and 
 m> equipment to provide these services and have the right to 
 m> regulate it in any way they see fit.  That's not the point. 

This is _NOT_ true.  There is no prohibition on encrypted messages
within FidoNet.  There is a large number of people within FidoNet that
use wishful thinking to support such a ban.

FidoNet policy states only that routing of encrypted traffic through
a system that has not previously authorized such traffic is considered
annoying behavior.  Contrary to what many would have you believe,
that is the _ONLY_ rule about encrypted traffic in FidoNet.



 m> The point(s) is/are:
 m>  
 m> 1)   They ACTIVELY enforce this policy.  They don't simply say 
 m> "no," they check (presumably) all of their user's email to 
 m> enforce this policy.

There is a great deal of paranoia within FidoNet about encryption.
There are many who will not allow encrypted traffic on their systems.
Of course, most of these have never heard of the term, steganography.
I have a simple message that I like to send to these folks.  Even
though the hidden message is just reading down the first column,
many people, especially those who claim they don't allow encrypted
messages on their system, miss it.

When PGP 2.0 first came out, I ran into these paranoids who said "There
will never be any encryption on my system".  I decided that an end run
around these bozos was in order, so I created the SecureMail system.
SecureMail is a group of FidoNet sysops who have agreed to route any
and all mail through their systems without any form of censorshiop
or monitoring.  It now covers every part of the U.S., with some overseas
links.

I can post a list of those participating if you would like.

Encrypted traffic now flows regularly through the SecureMail system.


 m> 2)   They seem to be afraid to pass/store encrypted messages on 
 m> their system.  This indicates to me a lack of understanding of 
 m> the concept of privacy.  They seem to buy into the idea that 
 m> "only BAD people encrypt email."

I fully agree with this assesment.  They do not understand that they
cannot be responsible for a message that they cannot read.  I
continually run into the "What have I got to hide attitude".  There
are a number of us in FidoNet actively promoting privacy and the use
of PGP.  We are making slow and painful progress.


 m>      We need to educate the electronic community before we can 
 m> hope to educate the general public.  The text of the messages 
 m> follow with the names removed.  BTW, the text of the plaintext 
 m> message was "this is a test."  Just thought you'd be 
 m> interested.  Comments?

I can probably guess the names that you deleted.  I get this type
of message frequently.  It's sad, but true that these people do need
educating.  Unfortunately, there are many with the closed minds so
well demonstrated in the message that you posted.



The primary internet/FidoNet gateway system (zeus.ieee.org) has
agreed to pass encrypted traffic from FidoNet to the internet and
vice versa.  However, much of the internet/FidoNet traffic passes
through other gateway systems which do not necessarily allow
encrypted traffic.  Even traffic that passes through zeus.ieee.org
may be routed through FidoNet systems that don't allow encrypted
traffic.


The trick in passing encrypted traffic between the internet and
FidoNet is in making sure that the routing sends it through a
gateway system that allows encrypted traffic and provides a direct
link into the SecureMail system.

You can send mail to any FidoNet system by addressing the message
to me at:

      Jim.Cannell at f21.n216.z1.fidonet.org

Put a line at the beginning of the text identifying the ultimate
addressee and his FidoNet address.  Right now, I will have to
manually process all such messages, but maybe if I get enough
traffic, it will motivate me to write a remailer program.  Then
we can can have anonymous remailing within FidoNet as well.  That
really ought to set the paranoids off :-).

There are others that will probably provide this service as well.
I'll post their names as they give permission.


By the time I received this message (I only get updates to this list
three times a week), the discussion has been extensive.  I have neither
the time nor the desire to respond to everything on the thread.  Rest
assured that I have read it.  Since it has stirred up so much controversy,
I will introduce the topic in the approritate places in FidoNet.  It
needs exposure there.  Since FidoNet systems are for the most part
privately owned, it is there especially that privacy needs to be
encouraged. 



Jim
PGP key 1024/72C6A7
fingerprint = F5 74 29 3D 9C F8 A7 32  C7 98 F1 FE C4 85 FA 70

Protect your right to privacy. Say no to Clipper/Skipjack and key escrow

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            (Gated via FidoNet Node 1:1/31)
 Jim Cannell      Internet: Jim.Cannell at f21.n216.z1.fidonet.org