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Re: pgp signing in van

Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca> Sun, 08 September 2013 21:33 UTC

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From: Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca>
To: IETF discussion list <ietf@ietf.org>
Subject: Re: pgp signing in van
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References: <m2zjrq22wp.wl%randy@psg.com> <2309.1378487864@sandelman.ca> <522A5A45.7020208@isi.edu> <CA2A6416-7168-480A-8CE1-FB1EB6290C77@nominum.com> <522A71A5.6030808@gmail.com> <6DE840CA-2F3D-4AE5-B86A-90B39E07A35F@nominum.com> <CAPv4CP_ySqyEa57jUocVxX6M6DYef=DDdoB+XwmDMt5F9eGn1A@mail.gmail.com>
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Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 17:33:45 -0400
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I have removed the attribution of this comment on purpose, because it applies
to multiple people, and I want to attack a behaviour, not a person:

    >> This is what I mean by "a high bar."   Signing someone's PGP key should mean
    >> "I know this person as X," not "this person is X."

    > Dilution of trust is a problem with PGP. "I know this person as X" is way too
    > lax if you want the system to scale.

Frankly, this is an example of pseudo-security “uphill and in the snow both
ways” that has meant that, 20 years after S/MIME and PGP, almost nobody
uses this stuff, even for the most elementary of things.

Remember: "better is the enemy of good enough".

To all the people who posted to this thread about how they don't know what
a PGP key signature means, and who did not PGP or S/MIME their email:
    Stop getting in the way.
    This is how an NSA mole would derail things: claim it needs to be better

--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@sandelman.ca>, Sandelman Software Works

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