>>>>> "Tim" == Tim May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Tim> Who uses crypto on a regular basis are those for whom the risks
Tim> of getting caught with certain material or certain thoughts are
Tim> nonzero, and for whom the penalties are significant.
I don't know how often this is true, but it's certainly not
universally true. Among many of my regular email correspondents, PGP
has been integrated into the mailer and is trivial to use. (I use
mailcrypt for X?Emacs and know many others who do also. Some others
use something else ... I don't really know or care what.)
Many of us encrypt our messages when the "risk of getting caught"
isn't especially attractive from the perspective of those who want to
see what's happening in email. Some examples:
o Discussion of research topics
o Papers and articles in progress
o Discussion of commercial ventures
The risk of getting caught in most of these cases probably is no
greater than anyone else who engages in Internet security and privacy
work, which probably isn't much greater than anyone else who is doing
any type of Internet design or development. Penalties in most of
these cases isn't especially significant. Someone might see our
research notes in progress or an unfinished draft of an article. Or
someone might catch some business plans.
In any case, particularly when excluding the commercial aspects of the
message, there isn't much in the way of "penalties" of interception.
More than anything else, any such penalty would come in the form of an
annoyance.
So why bother? Because it's nobody else's business and with good
tools, it's easy. There's no point in tempting someone with a sniffer
who happens to catch a piece of mail in transit.
--
Matt Curtin [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.interhack.net/people/cmcurtin/
