Re: reflecting on PGP, keyservers, and the Web of Trust

[Derek Atkins]

Ray Dillinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> I have long felt that PGP missed a trick when it didn't have 
> automatic expiry for keys -- It should be possible to build 
> into each key an expiration date, fixed at the time of its 
> creation.  For shorter keys, it ought to default to expiring 
> sooner, and not allow expiry more than a year or two out.  
> For a 2048 bit key, it ought to default to something like 10 
> years and let you pick a term up to a century.  

Actually, PGP has always had a key expiry time, even as long ago as
PGP 2.0 (maybe even longer).  The only problem is that it defaults to
'0', which means 'no expiry'.  So, I'm not convinced that PGP "missed
a trick" here, just that it didn't actually use the feature.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/      PP-ASEL      N1NWH
       [EMAIL PROTECTED]                        PGP key available