From: Greg Kucharo <sophi@best.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 17:08:41 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Netscape Mail Security and PGP Plugins
Message-ID: <31C39529.133B6630@best.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


There hasn't been a lot of discussion on this list about the future
of secure e-mail via Netscape. The most i've seen has come from
Raph Levien on the standards battle between S/Mime and other various
implementations including one using PGP. Raph has said at various
Cypherpunks meetings now that( and not wanting to totally put words in
his mouth) the PGP based implementations have lost ground to S/MIME.
 The reason I believe that this whole area has received so little
quarter on the list is that either few people use Netscape for e-mail
and that few people actually send encrypted e-mail.
 I'm going to try and put together a compendium of web links on this 
so it's a little easier to track the developments and various schemes.
 At the second to last Cypherpunks Bay Area meeting we had a discussion
of crypto GUI's. It's my opinion that Netscape would be an excellent
place to start because it does encryption relatively seemlessly.
Incorporating S/MIME into the mail would be a great step forward in
bringing easy crypto to the general community. Any PGP plugin I would
hope eleviate the many UI problems PGP has.
 A couple of questions I have right off the bat are;
 1. In Hal's Java mail encryptor, what are the legal aspects of
sending code across that contains crypto?
 2. Can any plugin access the Netscape Mail program.
 3. When is S/MIME going to be in Netscape, I tried to find info on the
web site but thier statements about S/MIME seem vague.
 I hope I'm not running over old ground, but this has to be alot more
intresting than discussing that PBS show!

Greg Kucharo
sophi@best.com