On 11/21/11 5:22 PM, Doug McNutt wrote:
At 15:24 -0700 11/21/11, Bruce Johnson wrote:
About half of all prescriptions filled remotely in the US is done by fax
machine. A fax cannot be falsified via a MITM attack like an email can, nor can
it be as easily forged, and faxes, unlike emails, support legal signature
requirements.
<rant/>
Of course we could have a system whereby we did have unfalsifiable emails with
valid signatures, but only drug dealers, terrorists and dirty f***ing hippies
use email encryption, right?
</rant>
You are soooo right!
Banks, brokers, and credit card folks all want everyone to change to all
electronic delivery of statements. They get delivered as PDF files which can
easily be modified by any half way intelligent programmer.
I figure the only real reason I want the monthly documents is for use in,
perish the thought, a problem that requires a court to provide a solution.
Can you imagine trying to prove that you did not modify a statement in PDF
format?
As Bruce says, it is possible to sign things using public-key cryptography. The
code is all there and is easily applied to the likes of a PDF or simple text
file that contains the data. Any changes would be immediately apparent. All I
ask, regularly, is that my bank use the cryptography to sign their documents
and declare up front that in any legal proceeding they will honor a match of
the crypto hashes in court.
I have yet to find a financial establishment that has the foggiest idea of what
I'm talking about. My stuff gets delivered as paper because I demand it while
suggesting the crypto option.
Where is my government on the point? Clueless is the answer and it applies to
much more.
Well that goes back to an article in a banking/banker magazine I read in
the library at East Central University. They were talking about making
everyone use plastic. Sounds like the feds want to track all the moneyy
to track us.
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