From: Sergey Goldgaber <sergey@el.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 14:04:54 -0800 (PST)
To: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Remailer problem solution?
In-Reply-To: <199703232314.XAA01324@server.test.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970324164349.142L-100000@void.el.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Sun, 23 Mar 1997, Adam Back wrote:

-> Sergey Goldgaber <sergey@el.net> writes:
-> > 
-> > This is only a practical problem related to PGP's lack of popularity.
-> > The proposed solution will work in the long run, assuming PGP achieves
-> > great popularity.  Thus, education of the public concerning PGP and remailers
-> > will help make this solution more effective.
-> 
-> Yeah, but if we get to the stage where most people with email
-> addresses have PGP keys, sending messages encrytped with PGP won't
-> reduce the number of people subjected to messages the don't want to
-> see.

PGP's current lack of popularity does not prevent spammers from using
it.

-> A side benefit of using PGP, is that PGP encryption should add some
-> overhead to the spammer -- he can probably encrypt less messages per
-> second than he can spam down a T3 link.

Exactly!  A 400,000 address spam will take a non-trivial ammount of time
to prepare (46 days, assuming 10secs/message) if every message must be
encrypted with an individual's key.


 ............................................................................
 . Sergey Goldgaber <sergey@el.net>      System Administrator        el Net .
 ............................................................................
 .   To him who does not know the world is on fire, I have nothing to say   .
 .                                                      - Bertholt Brecht   .
 ............................................................................