[Discuss] Fwd: Relevance of PGP?

[jabr at blu.org (John Abreau)]

Just noticed that I forgot to Reply-All on this.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Abreau <jabr at blu.org>
Date: Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Discuss] Relevance of PGP?
To: Anthony Gabrielson <agabrielson1 at comcast.net>


If average users didn't understand the reason their front doors have locks,
they probably wouldn't bother locking their fromt doors, and risk having
their homes burglarized.

The problem with encryption is that the average user hasn't been taught
the risks, so they don't understand why they should bother with encryption.
It is precisely because they don't understand the risks that leads them
to perceive the effort as "jumping through hoops".

It certainly doesn't help that Hollywood tends to portray crackers as having
some sort of supernatural ability to break into computers, when in reality
their skills are typically the equivalent of looking under the doormat
for a key,
knowing that many average homeowners will hide a spare key there.

If the Bad Guys have supernatural powers, then no amount of effort can
keep them out, whereas if the Bad Guys are just looking under doormats,
then the effort needed to thwart them isn't so hard.


On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 3:09 PM, Anthony Gabrielson
<agabrielson1 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> On Jun 11, 2011, at 2:23 PM, Bill Ricker wrote:
>> PGP ring of trust allows for non-centralized asynchronous auditable
>> out-of-band context. If I exchange key prints in a meatspace signing
>> party with John and he with you another day, I may decide that's
>> sufficient reason to believe you actually exist and that that's your
>> key, or not, at my choice.
>
> Yup you're absolutely correct. ?However, thats why it will never see widespread use - BLU folks aren't the average user and the average user will never jump through those kinds of hurdles. ?PGP out of the box is a PIA, with some really neat features. ?I've been doing some research, that at least I find interesting, to make it PGP useable; if I can ever get one of the papers published it may even make a neat talk.
>
> Anthony
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at blu.org
> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>



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John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
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-- 
John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
AIM abreauj / JABBER jabr at jabber.blu.org / YAHOO abreauj / SKYPE zusa_it_mgr
Email jabr at blu.org / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9
PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99