[TriLUG] "congress mulls stiff crypto laws"

[Tom Bryan]

On Saturday 15 September 2001 01:07 am, you wrote:

> Do you think that any encription available right now can be cracked with
> enough computing force?
>
> Yes.

This is the part that I find bewildering.  Does the FBI require that all lock 
manufacturers give the FBI a "master key" for opening the lock?  No, they 
just pick/break the lock when they have sufficient cause to search the locked 
item.  

If investigators want to intercept a particular individual's e-mail, work 
with ISPs to intercept the individual's e-mail on its way into the system.  
If it is encrypted, break the encryption.  Certainly, there's an expense of 
computer time here, but how much encrypted e-mail do they actually have cause 
to "wiretap"?  I would prefer to spend the money on the computing power and 
techniques to break the encryption than lose the right to use encryption.  
Note to readers: I don't even encrypt my e-mails, but if I wanted to send 
e-mail instead of the e-postcards, I would want to put an electronic envelope 
around my messages.

The only use I can imagine for a "master key" on all encrypted messages would 
be to run *all* e-mail traffic through something like Carnivore...which isn't 
even legal, right?

To bring the discussion back to Linux itself, there's a nice manual for GPG 
at http://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html.  It includes a discussion of some 
encryption concepts, GPG daily use, and getting started using GPG.

---Tom