🚀 go-pugleaf

jasper@bcl.santarosa.edu (Dane Jasper) writes:
> >mathew
> >-- 
> >PGP 2.0 public key
> >begin 644 mathew.pub
> 
> Mathew, you should use the -kea command to extract your key in an armortext 
> file - this eliminates the need for UUen/decoding..

Actually, with all this talk recently about spoofing and such, perhaps
it's wiser to buck the trend and communicate ones key in a format other
than the standard "PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK" armourtext?

As I see it, general spoofing of all PGP users by THEM is infeasible.
Just think of the manpower involved?  However, it would be a *lot* easier
to detect and, if necessary, replace all PGP public keys in e-mail and
news postings if sent in the standard easy-to-recognise format.  I mean
folks, they do stand out a mile, don't they?

And even if THEY didn't want to actively spoof keys, but simply
sabotage keys and hence disrupt or stop the usage of PGP (which perhaps
THEY mightn't want people to use for some inscrutable reason), the
standard format for the "PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK" makes such sabotage
trivial.  A simply awk script could be used to search and replace
any such keys in e-mail or news postings.

Also, the "PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK" beacon makes it very easy for THEM to
see just who is using PGP, and to compile lists automatically if they're
looking for folks to take interest in.  (Not that THEY would ever do
that sort of thing, just like THEY would never jot down license plates
of those attending fringe group meetings and all of the rest of that
lovely COINTELPRO stuff that went down.  No, THEY would never go out
looking for "potential threats.":)

So folks, maybe we should all be looking at atob, uuencode, boo, et al
when we come to communicating our public keys to others?

Cheers,

Paul.

PS: Damn, this paranoia is contagious, isn't it? ;-)

Disclaimer:  Any resemblence between THEM and the NSA and PKP
is unintended and purely accidental. :-)
-- 
e-mail: p.mather@sees.bangor.ac.uk

If your mailer can't reach me, I'm obviously not worth talking to.

"And I wanna tell ya, if there's anybody here who doesn't believe that
 it is FUCKING GREAT TO BE ALIVE I wish they'd go now because this show
 will bring them down so much."

        --- Frank Zappa, "Call Any Vegetable", _Just Another Band From L.A._