Re: [PLUG] What's smime.p7s? (Was: Ginger)

["Arthur S. Alexion" <arthur@alexion.com>]

I don't totally disagree, and the issue is not that big a deal for me.

At 11:50 PM 12/3/2001 -0500, you wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 03, 2001 at 10:24:47PM -0500, Arthur S. Alexion wrote:
> > >This is not an issue of secrecy, it's one of authentication.
> > Right.  Is that important for list mail?
>
> Authentication is always important.
>
> I state this as a truism because I believe it as such. But as
> justification... have you noticed that everyone just believes that
> emails from a given email address really come from someone? Email is
> the *easiest* of identity theft targets.



>  All I have to do is know a
> minimum of information about your dealings with some person (which
> is easy, especially with email correspondents, because all of your
> email correspondence is probably in clear text anyhow and reading
> yours is some minimal verbal coercion away, even easier if I know
> about the situation I want to affect, since I'm probably already
> interested with in that situation), and I can impersonate you with
> incredible ease.

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying in this sentence.

> Even if I don't know him personally, I
> know he's the same person I've seen send messages to PLUG and I know
> we have an established relationship. It doesn't matter if he is who
> he says he is, as long as he's said the same thing about who he is
> all along, I know that whoever's saying the important thing to me is
> the same person.

Good point.

> > But sometimes I want to save the messages, especially if they address a
> > problem similar to one I am experiencing.
>
> If you're making a special effort to save it, then delete the
> attachment out of it.

Easy to do, but my it's one more little thing to do and those little things 
add up.

While I never proposed that signatures were always unnecessary, I felt they 
were less important for correspondence of the sort we conduct on this 
list.  And if I could eliminate one little bit of housekeeping. . .

Anyway, your above quoted point has convinced me that the value outweighs 
the annoyance.

Art


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