PGP - when you care enough to send the very best!

[Curt Smith]

It is strange that crypto was a lot more popular back when
cryptography export was heavily controlled.  Many people fought
for their crypto rights, but cannot be bothered with encrypted
e-mail.  It is similar to securing the right to vote and then
declining to do so.

Lucky indicates that strong crypto has gone "under the hood"
and is now "mainstream" and "ubiquitous".  

This is not true.  There are countless e-mail and instant
messages sent as plaintext across networks, through wireless,
and over the Internet.

Also "under-the-hood" is a risky place for crypto.  It may be
"patched" or "upgraded" right out of your system.  Or perhaps
"improved" to 40-bit for optimum performance.

Stand alone cryptography is best.  I enjoy sealing my personal
letters in an envelope.  I am uncomfortable entrusting that
process to a third-party, or to the mailman.  I am similarly
uncomfortable entrusting e-mail encryption to an embedded
system and cached authentication systems.

Curt

--- Lucky Green <shamrock at cypherpunks.to> wrote:
You may be asking yourself: where, oh where, has all the crypto
gone? Where are the BlackNet's? Where is the untraceable Ecash?
Where is the Cryptanarchy that we've been waiting for? For that
matter...where is the crypto?
The staunchest Cypherpunk will by now have noticed that PGP/GPG
usage even amongst list members, once the bellwether indicator
of Cypherpunks crypto adoption success, is in decline.
...(segment elided)
Where has the crypto gone? The crypto has gone under the hood,
away from the UI, to a place where the crypto will be of most
use to the average user. Yes, for crypto to be secure against
the active, well resourced, attacker, the crypto must at one
point touch the user to permit the user to make a trust
decision. But to secure communications from passive and/or less
resourced attacker, crypto can be placed under the hood.
...(segment elided)
Where has all the crypto gone? It has gone mainstream. Some of
you may remember the discussions from years ago how we should
try to find a way to make crypto cool and attractive for the
average person.
...(segment elided)
Crypto has gone as mainstream as can be. While crypto for
crypt's sake may not have become cool to everybody, crypto has
become a Must Have for your average 14 year-old high school
freshman girl. Crypto has become ubiquitous.



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