Conversation:
Notices
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Ask HN: Why is PGP not used widely? !darknet !crypto https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6662798
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@zoowar Most people don’t want to be bothered with anything that is suspected to be too technical and complcated at all. But the use of PGP is really not nice, although you don’t need really dig too deep into crypto.
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I don't follow your second sentence.
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@zoowar I meant you would not need to learn a lot about cryptography to handle PGP mail, but people think it is too complicated and/or are too lazy to look at it.
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I like the idea of renaming public/private to something like lock/key which would resonate more clearly with the unthinking masses.
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Yes, and just a “encrypt” button to enable it. I also think maybe it would be a good idea to include a GPG package by default within the installation routine of mail clients.
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I think one of the things that killed #e-mail !crypto was the refusal to store messages decrypted even after they've gone end-to-end.
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e.g., #e-mail !crypto in #Thunderbird still means I can't #search *local* messages lest I be vulnerable to someone breaking into my house.
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Not being allowed !crypto for #privacy on an insecure public net unless I also fear for physical #security in my house/office is #bullshit.
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Love how the #Enigmail FAQ says "IF a message was confidential enough to be encrypted…" ☹ https://www.enigmail.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=637 !crypto #FAIL
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Thunderbird correctly keeps the message store encrypted, but should be performing decryption on-the-fly for searching, or keep an encrypted, hashed index for speedy searches. But that requires a level of !crypto integration that Enigmail doesn't yet offer.
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More accurately, Thunderbird correctly stores encrypted messages in an unencrypted message store. Would be nice if the message stores were encrypted too, so I'd be less concerned about keeping mail on another computer.
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What @SteveKlabnik said: Use GnuPG/PGP even if you *don't* understand it. You might be using a weak key, or accidentaly signing your mail with my public key, but even poor !crypto practices are better than no !crypto at all (but beware the false sense of security given by simple, easy-to-use, weak !crypto) See his pretty good speech at https://www.youtube.com/embed/LjZk8PP-u3c
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And if you're doing it wrong, there are lots of us !crypto geeks willing to provide advice: https://www.cryptoparty.in/
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You say "correctly", I still say #bullshit. If I wanted my local files encrypted, I'd encrypt my local filesystem.
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The transport doesn't get to dictate how data gets stored/used beyond its endpoints. Imagine if SSH left stdout encrypted....
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Imagine if TLS required that `anything that was sensitive enough to encrypt during HTTPS transit' was also stored encrypted on both ends.
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I just want end-to-end #security, not `up-my-end' security. Like TLS, which "correctly" doesn't impose encryption beyond the transport.
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I don't want to have to maintain my PGP keys and passwords, after revoking them, just to read my old #e-mail. Having to is what killed PGP.
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GnuPG/PGP isn't transport-layer encryption. For e-mail it's a message container that has to be opened separately; similar for files. If you want to store a message plain text, save it as plain text. The problem is that mail clients or their !crypto plugins have tried to make the encryption layer seamless with the transport layer or the message store. The analogy of a (plaintext) pos…
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@bobjonkman, I'm not disagreeing. I'm saying: you're right, and that's the problem. ☹
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#HOWTO craft a solution-in-search-of-a-problem that nobody wants to use: Step 1, get your #user-story wrong.
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I'm not convinced that PGP couldn't be used to implement `just end-to-end secure' e-mail if the !crypto community could actually value that.
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@rozzin @bobjonkman ISTM that there should be a way to make a PGP / WOT alike secure end-to-end transport. But I'm not a security guru.
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Would protect the data, but not the meta data. Still should use tls.
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An important issue rarely voiced. Good job.
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Holy crap! "Since version 1.8, Enigmail can decrypt mails permanently." https://enigmail.net/index.php/en/faq-en?view=topic&id=15 #enigmail #pgp #crypto