Re: Safe e-mail?

From: Jean-David Beyer (j_at_d.b)
Date: 10/21/03 

Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 16:19:05 -0400

Newbie wrote:
> Nedavno Jean-David Beyer piše:
>
> | >> I think that it is not safe to send this sort of information in
> | >plain> e-mail. What do I need to install in linux to encrypt my mail?
> | >>
> | >
> | > PGP or gnuPG both are available by search at:
> | > http://freshmeat.net
> | >
> |
> | I would suppose most vendors use something like SSL rather than PGP or
> | GnuPG.
> | Mozilla should do it if their web site is set up for it. Otherwise
> | they just possibly might use PGP or GnuPG, but more likely something
> | like VeriSign's digital signature certificates.
>
> I asked if i can use GnuPG for encryption, and got a confirming e-mail.
> Now I am wondering how do I knew that person I an communicating with is
> not someone that intercepted my first e-mail. I read some how-to's, and
> manuals, and it seems to me that maybe it has something to do with a
> "web of trust". How does that work in reality? How do I knew that
> someone on the other part of the world, that I am communicating for a
> first time is the person he claims to be? In my case he does have email
> address kjgrohmann at scw-media.de, and their web site is
> www.scw-webshop24.de, so it looks OK...
>

I wish you had not set the type face so small: I can hardly read this.

I find the Web Of Trust does not work at all for me, because no one I
know is interested in e-mail security at all. I did verify someone's
signature for him, and he for me, but we have no one in common, so the
only person I can be sure is signing e-mail and is who was on his
passport, is someone with whom I have nothing in common, and never see.

So the whole thing is useless because of the apathy of various paranoid
people I run into who bemoan the lack of privacy, but refuse to use GPG,
VeriSign, or anything else.

Sigh! 

-- 
   .~.  Jean-David Beyer           Registered Linux User 85642.
   /V\                             Registered Machine    73926.
  /( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey     http://counter.li.org
  ^^-^^ 4:15pm up 13 days, 2:28, 2 users, load average: 1.14, 1.18, 1.23

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