[6704] in Kerberos
Re: done any survey on who uses pub key cryptography?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Margaritsanakis)
Tue Feb 20 09:23:23 1996
To: kerberos@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 10:28:00 +0000
From: John Margaritsanakis <imarga@essex.ac.uk>
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On 15 Feb 1996, Thomas J. Satterfield wrote:
> I have and know how to use PGP but nobody I communicat with does. That is
> the problem: I would like to be able to use PGP on all my routine
> communications but for the most part nearly everybody at the other end can
> barely even turn on their computer and use email at all let alone with any
> sophisticated cryptography. Crypto, PGP, etc is so far beyond the comprehension
> of the "average" real-life computer user that until it is built into
> software as seamlessly as the Netscape secure-site protocols I do not think
> it will ever be used as extensively as we would like to see.
>
> That's just the way it is. People who can read and comprehend this message
> are for the most part a very tiny minority of computer users (IMHO)
>
> Tom Satterfield
> tjsatter@prairienet.org
>
Which is true... Most people *I* know are computer literate. and in
fact use advanced programs for their e-mail all the time -- custom made
config files in pine/elm, self-made .mailrc files, and anyway cannot be
called "ignorant"...
They just couldn't care less! Their age-old excuse ("if somebody
wants to read my crappy e-mail, let them!") is completely unbeatable by
the arguments I can present to them. The little extra trouble of typing
their PGP pass phrases every time they sent out e-mail, or even
installing the shells for their favourite programs to use cryptography
(even if they take lots of time to install completely useless stuff,and
that's to their *knowledge*) is way too much for them.
I agree with you in essence though -- *most* people will *never* use
cryptography of any kind as long as it's not implemented in their own
software packages and easy to use... But I think most people in this
group are paranoid enough to know that comfort will always come to the
expense of security, the more you have of the one, the less you can have
of the other.
All in all, I'm just waiting to take a look at the implementation of
the new version of PGP -- they claim the new module structure will be
easy to include in already existing software packages.
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| Department of Computer Science | last upon Beren son of Barahir." |
| Essex University, UK. | The Silmarillion |
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