A better approach to security

["Pim Veld" <pim.veld AT hetnet.nl>]

Hello Don,

 

I have read your blog-post.

 

In principle you are right. If someone with a network sniffer monitors your network line at the right time he/she can see your mail password. And not only your password but also the whole contents of your email. That is not a very likely event unless it is worth a lot for someone to learn you ‘secrets’. The same is true for anybody with sufficient rights on the in-between mail servers relaying the message. Fortunately most people with sufficient rights have busy jobs and not enough time (nor reason) to go specifically after you.

 

This is true since the beginning of e-mail and I see no special reason now to go mad about the plain text password. And certainly not blame Roadrunner because mail servers with encoded passwords are a very small minority. In fact I would sooner be worried about paranoia government-body’s reading my mail.

 

If you are worried about ‘third parties’ reading your e-mail than it is a very good idea to encode it. The decoding can only be done on the computer containing the right certificate and so you are certain that nobody can read it under way. It’s not complicated, it only involves (apart from getting the certificates – from CaCert for example) a few mouse-clicks.

 

But to my surprise I read in your blog:

“Oh, sure, you can use tools like GPG or PGP to encrypt your e-mail messages.  Apparently, though, that stuff is only for paranoid geeks and spies.  After all, how frequently do you exchange encrypted e-mail messages with your family and friends.  And, if you are silly enough to suggest encrypting e-mail messages, you will probably be considered paranoid, if nothing else.”

 

And therefore I wonder why you are looking for support from us ”silly paranoid geeks and spies”.

 

Finally, if you are so worried about your plain text password, why don’t you use Gmail exclusively. Gmail also works with local clients and there is no need to use Roadrunners email service at all.

 

Kind regards,

 

Pim Veld.