From: Mike Rose <mrose@stsci.edu>
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 93 08:39:01 PDT
To: rbg@panix.com
Subject: Re: text p.d. cryptosystems for email
In-Reply-To: <199307081503.AA28828@panix.com>
Message-ID: <9307081538.AA22424@MARIAN.STSCI.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 8 Jul 1993 11:03:02 -0400, Rachel Beth Goldstein <rbg@panix.com> said:

>however, friends told me that (1) crypt is easily compromised, and 
>(2) not all unix sites have crypt available anyway.  are there 
>text-based alternates to crypt, such that i don't have to use 
>uuencode or btoa to mail encrypted text?   

If they control the machine, anything is easily compromised.  One way
is to replace the standard crypt with a special one that secretly
saves a copy of the plaintext.

The alternatives you suggest suffer from the same problem.  If you
want to encrypt securely, you'll have to encrypt the plaintext on a
system that you trust - a computer that only you have access to is
best.

Depending on your privacy needs, an account on a system where you
trust the administrators not to abuse their privilege may be
sufficient.  While providing less privacy than encryption, it can be
more convenient.  It will certainly make it harder for them to harrass
you.  

Mike