uses for PGP

[Ed Carp <ecarp@netcom.com>]

khijol (formerly khijol.yggdrasil.com) is a 486/25 running the Linux operating
system.  Until March 1 of this year, khijol was used almost exclusively as a
place where subscribers to the newsgroup alt.sexual.abuse.recovery could meet
electronically and discuss abuse issues.  Anonymous accounts were freely given,
and site names, etc. were not tracked, allowing the users complete anonymity.
Several UNIX utilities were modified so as to obfuscate site names and user
names (in the case of rlogin), so that people could have a sense that their
privacy was ensured.

Many of the people who used khijol were survivors of sexual abuse, often from
within their own families. Many were still being abused, and were frightened
for their safety, and their lives.  It was not uncommon to join a group of
survivors and discover that one of the group was actively suicidal and the
rest of the group was trying to help get them "over the hump".

In the 5 months of its operation, khijol had over 500 anonymous users.  The
system was available (and used) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  As it was
directly on the Internet, survivors from all over the world used khijol, and
it was not uncommon to find 20 or 30 users on the system at any one time.
Anonymity and security were a primary concern for most users, and I tried to
make khijol as secure as possible.

Many custom utilities were written for khijol, including an interactive multi-
user "talk" facility that is similar to IRC, but did not allow for non-local
connections.  To facilitate the completely anonymous exchange of email, and
to ensure the privacy of the users, PGP was pressed into service.  Users
could, from an easy-to-use full screen curses-driven menu, generate a key
(their public key was automatically added to a public list) and select user(s)
to send encrypted email to.  "pgp -m" was added to ELM's configuration, so
that decryption would be automatic - one only had to type their password.
It was emphasized to the users that no one could read their encrypted email
except the person for whom it was intended.

ASs it turned out, PGP was a very welcome addition - many felt that their
communications were being monitored and their email read (by curious system
administrators), and so most users welcomed the addition.

At the moment, khijol is connected to the net via UUCP only - I am looking for
a new home for it.  When it comes back, it will be announced on
alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.
--
Ed Carp, N7EKG/VE3		ecarp@netcom.com		519/824-3307
	             	      an88744@anon.penet.fi
If you want magic, let go of your armor.  Magic is so much stronger than
steel!        -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever"