On 20/07/2009 09:36, [email protected] wrote: > On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 03:48:25PM +0100, Frank Leonhardt wrote: >> From: [email protected] >>> We do agree that local encryption of messages is a Good Thing [...] > >>> Did I forget anything? >> I think that's a pretty good summary of the situation. Where I'd differ is >> your risk assessment of the hijacking of a live server. > > I don't think we differ that much. For your typical "web server out > there" I think there is a non-negligible risk of it being hacked (I > think that is your assessment too). That means: plan for that > eventuality. Don't keep things on this machine if you don't have to. > > Or did I get you wrong?
No - I probably got you wrong! > [elided part: agree wholeheartedly] > >> So, encrypting the mail file makes a lot of sense [...] > > That's why I always talk about *de*crypting. I'm all for encrypting on > the server (agreed, the server "sees" the clear-text files at some point > in time, but once they are encrypted and all the remnants out of swap, > we are safe). What I don't see as an advance (wrt whole-disk encryption) > is when it's possible to *de*crypt the sensitive data on the server. Definitely. >> I'm not in favour of whole disk encryption for data recovery and forensic >> reasons. > > Agreed on recovery. Not so much on forensics (you'd have to have the > key, but I'd see that as a Good Thing). It get's messy. Withholding keys puts you (as the owner of the server) in a very tricky situation. Better to leave it to the users - if they encrypt the data then it's not your problem. >> Having said all this, I'm fairly relaxed about not having mail files >> encrypted. I've frequently told everyone to assume that their email is >> insecure, and if they've got a problem with it they need to use PGP or some >> other end-to-end encryption on their mail clients. Not my problem! > > Fully agreed, but one would have to entice people to send encrypted mail > all the time. How would you go about that? I find that spending lots of money on their credit card gets the message across :-)
