On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 3:30 AM, Jon Callas <[email protected]> wrote:

> .
> >
> > By PRISM-class I mean an attack that attempts pervasive surveillance
> with budgets in excess of $100 million rather than the PRISM program in
> particular.
>
> Rather than using a word like PRISM-class to mean something other than
> what it sounds like (which is a good idea), invent a new term or just say
> what you mean.


Maybe that is the case inside the field.

Outside the field, PRISM has a different meaning, one that is very widely
understood and tapping into that is a good way to build critical mass.



> > Neither OpenPGP nor S/MIME is capable of providing protection against
> this class of attack because they are not widely enough used. We can only
> hope for these to be useful if at least 5% of Internet users start sending
> mail securely.
>
> I understand what you are trying to say, but you have now created an
> objection that all new protocols fail against. So now nothing can meet the
> requirements because it has to be born with a user base.
>

I don't think we can expect S/MIME or OpenPGP to get to 5% by just waiting
for the inevitable success like we have been doing for 20 years.


I have been saying that something new should use components that are
> available now. Each of OpenPGP and S/MIME suffer from nothing more than
> cruft accumulated over time and things we can do better from the start
> because we have an additional 20+ years of thought and techniques.
>
> Throwing them out because we can and should just do better is both bold
> and simple.
>

Umm, not sure what you mean. I don't want to have to revisit the
interfacing to mail part of the problem which is where most of the horror
show ends up being. And there are a billion+ email clients that are capable
of receiving encrypted email that are worth building on.

I don't think it is the accumulated cruft that is the problem. It is the
lack of key discovery, security policy and the monolithic trust model.


-- 
Website: http://hallambaker.com/
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