On Thursday 12 May 2005 13:28, Duane wrote:
> Ian G wrote:

> > The most important thing that the browser UI
> > can do is to promote more SSL.  If twice as
> > many people use SSL but it has a slight
> > vulerability, that's much better than perfect
> > system that is only used by half as many.
>
> I agree with you on your opinions about opportunistic encryption, any
> encryption is better then none, but at the same time absolutely no
> verification is of no benefit either.


"Absolutely no verification is of no benefit either"
is a chimera.  Most tasks don't need so much more
verification than domains already give us, and for
those tasks that need more, there is more.

For those tasks that need less verification, like
reading this mailing list, or posting a bug fix to
the bugzilla site, or reading a blog, then encryption
of an opportunistic kind is fine, a nice win.

Also, bear in mind as you must have discovered
by now:  it is far easier to improve a half-way
situation than it is to start from scratch.  Once
SSL is in place, improving it to add certain
features like strong identity or verification or
better crypto is easy.  But putting an entire
website under SSL completely with all the
proper protections and getting it to some standard
of perfection is a bear.

It's no wonder that merhants only do it when they
are forced to.

It is far more economic to start off with some sort
of half way house and upgrade as and when your
users show you it is needed.


> > So, it would be ok for the lock not to be
> > shown as long as the browser does not
> > scare the user away or waste their time on
> > popups, IMHO.  If self-signed certs could be
> > used exactly as HTTP, then we could replace
> > HTTP with self-signed certs and everyone
> > wins.
>
> mmmmmm.... see above...

SSL should be done with drop in certs.  Drop
in the new cert, get the new feature you want
with minutes of sysadmin time spent.

How long have you spent on yours so far?

iang
-- 
http://iang.org/
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