[5335] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Key management for encrypting to self
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nick Szabo)
Tue Aug 3 19:24:35 1999
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 17:42:40 -0700
To: "Enzo Michelangeli" <em@who.net>
From: Nick Szabo <szabo@best.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <001201bedc8b$3d5fb580$e3cf54ca@asiainter.net>
Enzo Michelangeli wrote:
>What's the point of using publick key technologies like ECC to protect
>private documents?
The device or terminal I'm using at the moment may not be a
persistently secure part of my TCB. In particular:
(a) I might want to bring a Palm travelling but keep my
secret key at home, so that my key is not compromised if
the device is stolen.
(b) I might be borrowing a friend's device. (I'm trusting the
friend with the confidentiality of this particular document,
but not with my secret key).
(c) I might be accessing the encrypting device through an untrusted
terminal (into which I don't want to type my passphrase).
With public key crypto I can encrypt to self without having secure
access to my TCB. There are probably many other variations on this
theme.
szabo@best.com
http://www.best.com/~szabo/
PGP D4B9 8A17 9B90 BDFF 9699 500F 1068 E27F 6E49 C4A2
