[ On Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at 08:19:44 (+0100), Jan-Peter Koopmann wrote: ]
> Subject: RE: [exim] Securing Email for the prying eyes of any government
>
> while part of me agrees this obviously leads to new
> problems. Virus/Spam gateways would cease to function etc. And
> honestly I do not like the idea of having just one line of defence on
> the recipient PC when it comes to viruses...
"new problems"?!?!?! I don't think so! They're already "old".
Virus and spam filtering gateways have had a clearly and obviously
limited potential right from day one. Anyone with even a hint of a clue
knew long ago that it would only be a matter of time before
viruses/worms/spam and other junk began to make use of encryption.
In fact we've already had several instances of encrypted junk, though so
far only within encrypted ZIP files, IIRC.
Expect more, lots more, and with lots more variations.
The only real solution to viruses and worms will be when the world
finally wakes up and realizes that end-user system security is an
absolute necessity, even when it gets in the way of simplicity and ease
of use. Maybe more encrypted malware e-mail will help that learning
process along, or maybe it'll take decades longer than anyone might
hope.
Also note that for any real security/privacy needs there's _NEVER_ going
to be any viable server-based solution unless we _all_ go back to
logging into the server to read our mail like in the good old multi-user
shared system days. For privacy to work the encryption _MUST_ be
end-to-end -- there is no other way.
Maybe you need to read Bruce Schneier's "Secrets & Lies: Digital
Security in a Networked World". (again if you already have :-)
It's the best single intro to all these issues I know of.
--
Greg A. Woods
H:+1 416 218-0098 W:+1 416 489-5852 x122 VE3TCP RoboHack <woods@???>
Planix, Inc. <woods@???> Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
