reasons to encrypt mail and data

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

On Sat, 6 Oct 2001, Steve wrote:

> Derek D. Martin wrote:
>
> >   - keep your boss(es) and/or coworkers from reading your private mail
> >     which could get you ostricised/fired/worse
>
>
> I agree with a lot of points, but this is an odd one if you're talking about
> using the company's assets to do these personal things.
>
> Nobody's data on company equipment can be considered theirs. Companies allow you
> to use their assets for private purposes, but that's at their discretion. It may
> not be the company's right to know your private data, but it swings both ways.
> It's not your right to use the company's assets for your personal purposes. You
> violate one right; expect to get violated on the other. If you were to send
> something personal that could get you ostracized, fired, or worse, then why
> would you want to use your employer's equipment?
>
> As for malicious co-workers, you have more serious problems than encryption. The
> same type of individual who will regularly sniff packets is probably much more
> likely to be the same type of individual who will read classified files, stick a
> keyboard sniffer, and plant a backdoor if given the chance and resources.


To clear this issue up, this was not personal data/communications.

In my last company, a group of us geeks used to do covert development that
we deemed absolutely essential to the success of the product, but
Management would never authorize us to spend time on.  Management was very
reluctant to work on the supporting infrastructure of the appilcation
instead of features, but it was us who had to keep it running, and were to
blame when it didn't. So we would sneak in security and reliability
enhancements, and build modular sections that other features, which they
did want, could be built off of in a reuseable way.  Almost without
exception the work we did had positive effects on the product with minimal
impact on the deadlines we were on the hook for.  There were a couple of
projects that blew up in our face, but it was all still worth it.

We also used said techniques to let programmers who were stuck in dead-end
positions do a little more interesting work, who would have either quit or
died of boredom.  Management also made no effort to motivate the majority
of the technical staff.


---
DDDD   David Kramer                           http://thekramers.net
DK KD
DKK D  "The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful
DK KD  hypothesis by an ugly fact."
DDDD                                                - Thomas Huxley

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