On Mon, 8 Nov 1999, Markku J. Saarelainen wrote:
> About twenty years ago, there was a small boy (9-11 years old or so), who
> had his penpals around the world - the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom,
> Australia, Germany and many other European nations. He wrote his letters on
I think there was more than one.
> a paper and then mailed these letters in sealed envelops and he received
> letters from his international friends in sealed envelops. He did not use
Sealed envelopes are not a guarentee of privacy.
> postcards. In today's world, there are many executives in governments,
> businesses and other organizations, who email their secrets in postcards.
You have to trust your transit provider just like you have to trust the
Postoffice. In both cases, anyone with access to the information gets
the data. Most large companies peer with their Tier-1 providers, so the
case for inter-company theft is normally restricted to the admins at each
site and a maximum of two providers' transit equipment. In the "old"
paper-orientated way, the scope would be the secretaries at each end,
their computers and the postal system. I really don't see too much
change there except that most secretaries have carte blanch and have to
know the contents of their exec's documents.
Most companies outside of lawfirms don't exchange a great deal of "secrets"
with other companies. Those that do that I've encountered (like
lawfirms) don't use e-mail for sensative information.
Nonetheless, there are security initiatives at the transport level that
make enhancing the security of such messages probable in the near-term.
> How has the world changed? Or was this young child just smarter than many
> today's executives?
The world hasn't changed, and neither is "smarter" since they're just
using the technology given them to communicate with others. The real
question is if you're allowing your executives to use e-mail without
education, why? If you're trusting "sealed envelopes", why? Most
importantly have you analyzed the risk against the business case and
decided what makes sense.
Paul
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Paul D. Robertson "My statements in this message are personal opinions
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