On Jul 7, 2004, at 12:42 PM, Marta Edie wrote: > For some reason, i have never been a security nut. I always think > whoever wants to find out about my secret doings, will find out > anyway, and those things I already did, the so-called "diddings" the > secret seekers already know, and since I am close to disappearing from > this earth, it does not much matter either way.
Apple is not catering to just the security nuts by including the "Secure empty trash" option. Many government agencies and some companies require this feature when they purchase computers. Although I'm still planning to kill Bill for posting yet another signed message, I do think being able to sign messages is a good thing. The digital signature gives some assurance that the message is coming from Bill, and not somebody masquerading as Bill. Some companies and government agencies require messages to be signed and perhaps even strongly encrypted. Two of the biggest roadblocks in the way of more convenient Internet usage by everyone are privacy and assured identity. For example, even though it would likely be faster and more convenient, many medical providers refuse to answer personal questions by e-mail because they don't really know to whom they are sending private information. Digital signatures are a solution for this problem. (They'd likely want to use strong encryption too. Strong encryption and digital signatures are two sides of the same coin.) Right now, the encryption establishment is in the hands of a few companies, and they're more interested in selling keys to Internet commerce sites, banks and investment firms than pushing secure e-mail. Because of this, a new user has to navigate difficult Web pages and establish "levels of trust" in order to get reliable and useful keys. The government should get into the act and make it easy to establish a digital identity. (Post office? County clerk's office?) But, the government discourages the use of strong encryption because the FBI, NSA, CIA, etc. lobby against it. They claim encryption will make it harder to catch Osama, if they can't read Osama's e-mail. Of course, Osama already uses strong encryption. They're just making it less convenient for the rest of us. PS/ On my list of things to do is to determine why the scripts that run this list are allergic to signed messages. PPS/ Jerry, it's the mangler script that hangs, in case you've got the time to peek at it before it floats to the top of my things to do queue. | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be July 27. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
