Re: [Endymail] Improvements to S/MIME

Dave Crocker <dcrocker@gmail.com> Fri, 12 September 2014 18:39 UTC

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Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 11:35:54 -0700
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker@gmail.com>
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To: Arnt Gulbrandsen <arnt@gulbrandsen.priv.no>
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Subject: Re: [Endymail] Improvements to S/MIME
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On 9/12/2014 11:12 AM, Arnt Gulbrandsen wrote:
> Just a question... I heard someone say at one IETF conference that
> S/MIME is the only standard with more implementations than users. Why
> has it suffered that fate? Surely not because of the two problems you
> mention.


Generic discussions about challenges in gaining use of end2end security
at Internet scale seem to be applicable to S/Mime.

They note:

   1.  We don't have an existence proof for workable key management at
scale.

   2.  We don't have an existence proof for usability (UX, HCI, etc.) at
Internet scale, which means workable for non-geeks who have no extra
motivation.

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net