[49292] in Cypherpunks
Re: Encryption Programs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)
Mon Feb 5 15:34:20 1996
To: avatar@mindspring.com
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 04 Feb 1996 10:46:02 CST."
<199602041551.KAA26343@borg.mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 1996 15:13:15 EST
From: Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>
> OBVIOUSLY the spokesman of the group. I ask for help and this is what I get?
>
> One more time, I'm well aware of the capabilities of PGP. What I'm
> looking for is a program
> that does a better job of binary encryption than just Radix 64 ASCII armoring.
Umm, I think you might be a little confused. Either that, or you
mis-typed. What do you mean by "better job of binary encryption than
just Radix 64 ASCII armoring"? PGP does a lot more than just Ascii
Armor. The Ascii Armor is just a self-recognizing transport
mechanism, nothing more.
The real meat behind PGP is its encryption and key management
utilities. PGP uses the IDEA cipher, combined with RSA key
management, to securely encrypt any kind of file. The Ascii Armor is
used solely to protect the PGP files during transport over email and
other ascii-only protocols.
I hope this clears up any possible misconceptions.
-derek
