From: Mike <Michael.Johnson@mejl.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 14:52:25 +0800
To: Ariel Glenn <mskala@langara.csc.UVic.CA
Subject: Re: SMTP Encryption Extension
In-Reply-To: <Your message of Mon, 20 Oct 1997 14:52:02 -0700 (PDT)>
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19971021082737.00928b20@localhost>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Ariel Glenn wrote:
>So data kept on the filesystem has to be protected and it has to be
encrypted when it is sent out to the browsing (legitimate) user. 

But you can do that already with standard software. Just encrypt the disk
with CFS and the web server with SSL. Nothing needs to be invented to solve
your problem. All the popular browsers already have SSL running.

Which leads to another idea, couldn't we encrypt SMTP by running it over
SSL as a web server cgi? If 99% of Internet traffic is web browsing and we
are trying to hide our email, then why not make the email look like web
browsing?

Just make your mailer try a "POST https" command before falling back to
plain SMTP.

The problem with including crypto in a popular Linux distribution is that
all popular Linux distributions are from the USA. Maybe suse (www.suse.de)
can change that...



Mike.