why do you sign your mails?

[Scott Blaydes]

On Jun 25, 2014, at 5:52 AM, rysiek <rysiek at hackerspace.pl> wrote:

> Dnia środa, 25 czerwca 2014 11:20:50 stef pisze:
>> i noticed lots of users pgp-sign their mails to mailing-lists. what exactly
>> is the reason/usecase/attackvector you defend against for that? what
>> exactly is the reason for doing so on public mailing lists? and why does it
>> make sense to sign irrelevant messages like "+1" or "just kidding" -
>> assuming no stego usecase is in play.
> 
> One more reason: spreading the word about GPG/PGP. This actually helps get 
> people interested in encryption, and helps also inform people that do have a 
> GPG/PGP key (but for different reasons do not use them on a general basis), 
> that here's a person that does use it, and it's possible to encrypt e-mails to 
> that person.
> 
> Which might not be all that important on cpunks, I give you that, but a rule 
> is a rule. ;)

I do it to let the people I am communicating with through plaintext email know that I am setup and configured to handle encrypted communications. All they need to do is pull my pub key off of a key server and then our communications are encrypted from that point forward.

The prevention of being impersonated is also one reason, along with a way to secretly signal to the recipient that I am under duress and my words may not be my own.

Course that all goes out the window when emailing from my cellphone. That ain’t no way I want my private key on my cellphone.

Thank you,
Scott Blaydes


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scott at sbce.org                           \    /    *BSD/Linux Advocate	crypto user 
 GPG 096EECF0D8A2381E         \/     Society for Better Computing Ethics
gpg key on keyserver                   /  \                  http://sbce.org/
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