[Sussex] Gnupg and it's use

[Ronan Chilvers]

Hi Al

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:22:45 +0000
Al Girling <al at gcguk.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi folks,
> 
> I've started to use Gnupg lately, seems like a popular thing among
> GNU/Linux types.  I can't help but notice that hardly anyone on this
> list signs their mail.  Is this a mailing list etiquette thing or
> something else?

Good question - I'd been wondering that myself!

> I know that people who use Outlook Express will get
> annoyed if they receive signed mail as for them they get a blank mail
> with two attachments, one of which is the message, which they then
> have to open in Notepad.  I can see this as being a barrier to
> potential new users and that you may discourage the use of gpg as a
> result.
> 
> Am I close, or is that you simply just don't use gpg?
> 

Started using gpg when I started running mail servers and saw how easy
it was to forge email addresses and generally abuse email systems!  As
an admin I think its important for people to have some degree of
certainty that I'm me!!  And in these days of things like 'Joe
Jobs' (ie: someone spoofing your email address to send something nasty
like a virus - you get all the bounces!!) it may protect you legally as
well.

If Outlook Express was fixed so it at least just ignored the signature
(why don't they do this?????? AAARGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!) and Outlook had at
least rudimentary gpg / pgp support built in it would go a long way
towards enhancing its use, but the great MS won't be polluting their
software with any GPL cancer any time soon!!! It does astonish me that
Outlook has consistently mishandled gpg/pgp signatures for years with
NO sign of it being fixed.

However I think the main reason that people don't use it much is that
they either haven't heard of it or, if they have heard of it, they
don't think its very important.  In my experience people are
astonishingly lax about computer / digital security, mainly because
they have no idea there's an issue in the first place.

By the way the above is general comment, not specifically about at the
members of this list, before I get stomped!!??!!

My 2p.

Cheers
-- 
Ronan
e: ronan at thelittledot.com
t: 01903 739 997
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