Re: Introducing newbies to encryption (was: Re: anonymous credit)

[ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home)]

Eric Nystrom wrote:
> >   There isn't a week that goes by without my receiving an email from
> > someone who thanks me for the benefit they have gained by my introducing
> > them to encryption or anonymous remailers, yet I doubt that many of them
> 
> Toto hints at some issues here that I've been wondering about for a while 
> now.  What are some effective strategies for securely introducing 
> "newbies" to the world of cryptography and anon remailers?  I'm 
> currently attending college, which means that my peers all use email very 
> regularly -- a ripe environment for use of cryptography in email, I should 
> think.  However, nearly everyone's email accounts are on a central Unix 
> machine, which brings up many issues about the (lack of) security of 
> private keys on multiuser machines.
> 
> My question is this -- is it better for the crypto community in the long 
> run to have more people using encryption, but perhaps insecurely, or 
> to have fewer users whose communications are more cryptographically secure?

Multiuser Unix Security == No Security.

Your users may have illusions, but not true security.

First thing I'd suggest is to explain them that nothing that goes through 
that central unix machine is truly secure.

	- Igor.