ietf-openpgp
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RE: Is PGP still private?

1997-10-21 12:49:49
     Bill
     
          >>...  there is no version of PGP that allows a 3rd party to

          decrypt a message without your knowledge <<
    
    I think you are making too much out this ""knowledge""  business
    
    If this is the only way to correspond, we are lucked out.
    It may be a bad example, but you may know that nicotine is bad, but
if you 
    are an addict, ...  The only effective cure is to eliminate
availability.
    
    Cheers
    
    David Gaon

______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Is PGP still private?
Author:  William H. Geiger III [SMTP:whgiii(_at_)invweb(_dot_)net]  at DISAHUB
Date:    10/16/97 6:39 PM


In <v03110703b06c42291a03(_at_)[206(_dot_)183(_dot_)203(_dot_)100]>, on 10/16/97
   at 05, Roland Silver <rollo(_at_)artvark(_dot_)com> said:
     
I'm interested in PGP 5.x, but I don't understand the criticism of it.
Do 
certain versions of PGP have GAK or CMR capability built in? If I use 
such a version to send a message encrypted with Alice's public key,
will 
someone other than Alice, such as the FBI, be able to read it without
my 
knowledge or consent?
     
If the answer to that question is on some FAQ, please point me to it.
     
Dispite some of the FUD and Fearmongering going on, there is no version
of 
PGP that allows a 3rd party to decrypt a message without your knowledge 
(there is no backdoors in any version of PGP). Now what Alice does after

she has decrypted the message is another matter that is beyond your 
control. :)
     
Now just for the those in the "cheap seats": If you encrypt a message
with 
and only with Alice's public key then only someone who has a copy of 
Alice's private key can decrypt it. Hopefully Alice is the only one who 
has that key, but like the decrypted message, you really have no
controll 
of what Alice does with her keys.
     
--
--------------------------------------------------------------- 
William H. Geiger III  http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii
Geiger Consulting    Cooking With Warp 4.0
     
Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice 
PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail.
OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html
     
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