On Thu, 23 May 2002, Curt Smith wrote: > This is a fairly accurate description of the situation, but > neglects to emphasize that the reason [1-cypherpunk] bothers > convincing [2-coerced associate] to use encrypted e-mail is > because [1] understands its importance and is attempting to > share/spread that understanding.
Yes, [1] understands its importance. I think you overestimate the amount of effort put forth by [1] to "spread the Word", though. While evangelizing strong crypto might be second-nature to a cypherpunk, the other members of [1] are standards-setters because they must be. They require [2] to use strong crypto, because it is their asses if they don't. They don't care, and don't need to care, if [2] understands the value of strong crypto, as long as [2] uses it in communication with [1]. > Although [3-Joe Sixpack] may not understand or appreciate > encryption, [3]'s support is helpful to protect [1]'s > cryptography rights. Furthermore once [3] has crypto, [3] will > resist attempts to take it away (along with his six pack, > etc.). With this, I fully agree. The challenge is to design a system that satisfies the security requirements for [1]'s threat model and the usability requirements for [3]'s attention span. It has yet to be done. All attempts thus far have been lucky if they only fail at one of those two goals. Most fail at both. -MW-
