crypto was Re: [Gllug] Editors

Richard Cohen richard at vmlinuz.org
Mon Jul 30 14:48:12 UTC 2001


(My last post on this subject...)

On Mon, 30 Jul 2001, David Freeman wrote:

>  --- Richard Cohen <vmlinuz at vmlinuz.org> wrote: > On Sun, 29 Jul 2001,
> David Freeman wrote:
> >
> <snip>
<more snip>
> > For the record, I think Tom is right and you're out of your mind.
> > Nothing personal, of course...
>
> I am out my mind for wanting to use sensible cryptographic and
> stegangraphic techniques to with hold information from those who my
> abuse it. Would you like me to put my entire HDD on a public samba
> share for all to see?

Ah - there's the problem.  We differ in the definition of sensible.  To me,
as soon as you start to limit functionality (as, for example, turning off
the swap on your system would) in order to enhance security, you are no
longer being sensible.  I use SSH for almost all my cross-Internet comms,
and wireless stuff, but I use rlogin and telnet at work and over my LAN at
home.  I can't use SSH in general at work, as most systems don't have it
installed, and SSH is a good thing, quite apart from the encryption, as it
gives significant functionality over telnet and rlogin.

Of course I don't advocate having everything open (do you see the initals
jcm at the end of my posts? :-), but I also don't advocate limiting your own
use of your own facilities in order to hide from 'Them'.

I do not, in general, think the Government is after me.  I do not, in
general, think they care two hoots about me.  I therefore need do nothing to
hide from them.  I do know there are people on the 'net who are after me (in
the general sense that they're after anything which moves), and I take
sensible (read - non-functionality-reducing) steps to protect myself against
them.

> > There should probably be a smiley somewhere in my text above.  I'm not
> > 100% sure there should be thought...
>
> Parse error second sentence.

Sorry.  I meant that there *probably* should have been a smiley, but that
I'm not sure.  I might have been quite serious, in which case a smiley would
have been a lie.

> > And you probably don't want to actually argue with me about what you so
> > casually toss off as a reason for your paranoia.  I *have* actually
> > studied that stuff...
>
> Please go on here with what you have studied. I would be interested in
> hereing your point of view.

Not on-list - it's well off-topic.  If you do want to hear, contact me
directly and I'll tell you why I think the rise of Nazism in Germany in
the 1930s is irrelevent to this discussion.

> Thanks
>
> D
>
> > Cheers
> > Richard

Cheers
Richard



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