From: Ben Goren <ben@Tux.Music.ASU.Edu>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 94 22:12:53 PDT
To: State Press Editor <icjbo@asuvm.inre.asu.edu>
Subject: Electronic Postcards
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9408232140.A11702-0100000@Tux.Music.ASU.Edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Dear Editor,

Most everybody I know puts almost all mail in an envelope before dropping 
it in the mailbox. The only time we do otherwise is when sending a 
postcard that says, "I'm here, wish you were fine."

So why does everybody send all email in a way that's just as easy to read
as a postcard? Why, then, all the fuss over ASU officials reading
electronic postcards? 

If you don't trust the various system operators through whose computer
your message might pass, put your email in an envelope--by encrypting it.
If you use the most popular email encryption software on the Internet,
PGP--Pretty Good Privacy, written by Philip Zimmerman and now maintained
and distributed by MIT--then even the National Security Agency, the
super-secret government agency entrusted with electronic surveillance,
would resort to a beating with a rubber hose before expending the computer
power necessary to decrypt your messages. And that's making the rather
doubtful assumption that such power even exists.

In other words, only my friend John could tell you that

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Really means, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Since I've deleted the original, even I couldn't tell you what it says
except from my own fading memory.

Because of an obscure code of laws known as the International Trafficking
in Arms Regulations, strong cryptography, including PGP, is classified
right up there with anti-tank missiles. Never mind that any program that
is readily available in the States is also readily available abroad, there
are stiff fines and prison sentences for those who export cryptography
from the US or Canada. Thus, if you wish to get a copy of PGP for
yourself--absolutely free--you must get it directly from MIT. Use
anonymous FTP--which you can do from any computing site on campus--to
connect to net-dist.mit.edu, and get the file /pub/PGP/README. It contains
instructions on how to get the software. 

While a technical description of how PGP works is beyond a letter to the 
Editor, I would be more than happy to provide such via email to those who 
ask. Just write to me at Ben.Goren@asu.edu

And, of course, PGP-encrypted messages are most welcome.

Yours truly,

Ben Goren
Faculty Associate
School of Music
5-0429

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Comment: My key is not 'escrowed' with any government agency.

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Note to those receiving this message as a Cc:

This letter is in response to a front-page article and an editorial in 
Arizona State University's student newspaper, the _State Press._ The one 
described and the other decried a draft resolution which would formalize 
the current policy of allowing administrators to examine any account on 
any university computer for no cause other than "reasonable suspicion."

b&

--
Ben.Goren@asu.edu, Arizona State University School of Music
 net.proselytizing (write for info): The battle is over; Clipper is
 dead. But the war against Government Access to Keys (GAK) goes on.
 Finger ben@tux.music.asu.edu for PGP 2.6 public key ID 0xCFF23BD5.