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March 10, 2007
Paranoia
The issue's not whether you're paranoid, ... the issue is whether you're paranoid enough.
Somtime in 1992 or 1993, I discovered PGP - and I tried - really tried - to use it to encrypt email communication for years. When the first mailers supporting S/MIME came out, I tried that - but despite better support in email applications, it had the same problem as PGP - no one else (*) was participating (* well, amost no one.)
Even though I knew it was a lost cause, I even wrote an app while in grad school that tried to make PGP (or GnuPG) easy enough for anyone.
Recent news has reinforced my conviction (cemented by some older news) that I wasn't unjustifyably paranoid.
"No right of private conversation was enumerated in the Constitution. I don't suppose it occurred to anyone at the time that it could be prevented."
- Whitfield Diffie
Posted by dberger at March 10, 2007 8:04 PM
Comments
Sorry, clearly still not paranoid enough. Everyone knows that They(tm) have had quantum computers for years, courtesy of stranded tourists from Way Out Of Town, making pretty much every communications path more sophisticated than cans and string a party line.
And of course, there's plenty to worry about much closer to home:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att
Posted by: Hendel at March 13, 2007 5:00 PM