[8874] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Cryptobox (was Re: Edupage, June 20, 2001)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eric Murray)
Thu Jun 21 14:10:05 2001
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 09:02:32 -0700
From: Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com>
To: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
Cc: Digital Bearer Settlement List <dbs@philodox.com>,
dcsb@ai.mit.edu, cryptography@wasabisystems.com
Message-ID: <20010621090232.A22337@slack.lne.com>
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In-Reply-To: <p05100307b757a8a27c8c@[62.188.10.38]>; from rah@shipwright.com on Thu, Jun 21, 2001 at 02:36:05PM +0100
On Thu, Jun 21, 2001 at 02:36:05PM +0100, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 5:08 PM -0600 on 6/20/01, EDUCAUSE wrote:
>
>
> > PRIVATE LIFE
> > Researchers at Ottawa University are developing Cryptobox, a
> > program that encrypts e-mail, instant messages, and other Internet
> > communications. The program works by sending transmissions over
> > a peer-to-peer network, scrambling each end of the transmission
> > with an encryption code and hiding it underneath a stream of junk
> > traffic. The system automatically decodes the transmissions once
> > they reach their destinations. The researchers have already
> > tested Cryptobox in a network of 40 real and 200 virtual clients
> > and report that the test succeeded. Independent researchers are
> > skeptical, however. Richard Clayton, a computer scientist at
> > Cambridge University, noted, "It's unclear whether they can make
> > this work and keep it stable in the real world with millions of
> > systems." The program could, if successful on a large scale,
> > solve one of the main security vulnerabilities of the Internet.
> > Currently, e-mails, instant messages, and many other transmissions
> > can be easily intercepted by those with access to key areas of a
> > network.
...unless they're running one of the myriad existing solutions
(like IPSEC, PGP, S/MIME, SMTPS).
I love it when journalists regurgitate press releases without
doing even the most basic research.
More on Cryptobox at:
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/11281.html and
http://cryptobox.sourceforge.net/new/index.html
Eric
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