[Discuss] Relevance of PGP?

[agabrielson1 at comcast.net (Anthony Gabrielson)]

On Aug 19, 2011, at 8:23 AM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:

> Agreed, but neither my Mom nor myself need to have a clue how SSL works in
> order to use something like s/mime.  It just so happens I am able to follow
> a process, click all the right checkboxes, to create & install my
> certificate, and those are a bit beyond her level.
> 
> If only web browsers and mail clients made this more seamless, it would be
> all done.  Usable by even my Mom.

Yes - to a point I agree.  With that said, I actually think email clients are a bit difficult to configure.  With a bit more networking infrastructure (read: additional service) this process could be complete automated.  If the right implementations are used more cryptography capability capability can be added.

Its been awhile since I looked at S/Mime, but if I recall it has many of the same issues as SSL.  Have you looked at any of Moxie's applications by chance?  He does some neat stuff to make it really easy to punish SSL.

Anthony