Re: The US government has betrayed the Internet. We need to take it back

[Michael Thomas <mike () mtcc com>]

On 09/06/2013 12:52 PM, Nicolai wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 06, 2013 at 12:03:56PM -0700, Michael Thomas wrote:
> > On 09/06/2013 11:19 AM, Nicolai wrote:
> > > That's true -- it is far easier to subvert email than most other
> > > services, and in the case of email we probably need a wholly new
> > > protocol.
> > Uh, a first step might be to just turn on [START]TLS. We're not using the
> > tools that have been implemented and deployed for a decade at least.
> Agreed.  Although some people are uncomfortable with OpenSSL's track record,
> and don't want to trade system security for better-than-plaintext
> network security.
>
> But the deeper issue is coercing providers to give up mail stored on
> private servers, bypassing the network altogether.  TLS doesn't address
> this problem.  Short term: deploy [START]TLS.  Long term: we need a new
> email protocol with E2E encryption.

I'd say we already have those things too in the form of PGP/SMIME.
Who knows what the NSA can break, but it's just not right to say that
we need new protocols. The means has been there for many years to
secure email (fsvo 'secure'), it's just that it's not terribly convenient
so we just don't for the most part.

Mike