ietf-openpgp
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Re: S/MIME wins

1998-03-13 13:24:56
At 11:05 AM +1100 3/7/98, Andrew Bromage wrote:

Also ask yourself if anyone would go to the same effort over S/MIME as
the PGPi group did with PGP 5.0 (with scanning and proofreading etc).
This suggests that PGP/MIME may well be the only interoperable strong
crypto system for your email available world-wide, which has to be a
point in its favour.

Questions of how to support a particular technology around the world with
commercial ventures radically change the ground.  We see this over and over
again.  The IETF has been remarkably successful in avoiding the pitfalls in
this transition in other realms, our experience with http and html,
notwithstanding.

Crypto technology is new ground because of the intense political scrutiny
to which it is subjected.  The fact that PGP has already crossed many
international boundaries is a significant advantage in gaining acceptance.
It enables PGP to be less sensitive to pressures to compromise the quality
of technology.

The S/MIME group is to be applauded in their attempts to resist that same
pressure.

But both group's work on defining protocols is only the beginning.
Implementation, deployment, and acceptance will finally tell the tale.  The
end of the story is still years off, in my estimation.  It won't finally be
written until there is a certificate distribution system that works as well
as DNS has worked for the net up to today.

However, right now, I just want to get the keys right and establish that we
can reliably exchange signed and encrypted mail.  Then we can go on to
other, bigger things.

best,
john noerenberg
jwn2(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  There is no illusion more dangerous than the belief that the
  progress of science is predictable.
  -- Freeman Dyson, "Six Cautionary Tales for Scientists", 1988
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