🚀 go-pugleaf

fn979@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Don Reynolds) wrote:
>
>In a recent newscast 60 Minutes reported that e-mail
>was  not  private.

That's what PGP is for.

>Heck, we on  the net know that, but they did bring  out
>one point and that was, any  system operator can make back
>up  files and  therefore your e-mail  may be in a system
>somewhere for  years.

Any good network admin will encrypt the mail spool, even if it's a
simple key, so that future references to the tape will bounce the
occasional teenage hacker-wannabe.

>Your e-mail may go thru many systems, and your  chances
>of having privacy in e-mail is nill.

Not on the Internet.  If two Internet-connected sites, A and B,
have users transferring mail between the two, then no other machine
sees e-mail besides the mail machine at system A's site, and the
mail machine on system B's site.

The only exception to this is UUCP, where the mail is stored on , say ,
site B , until site C dials in via modem and picks it up.  BUT.. the only
people that have access are the network admin(s) at site B.  Network
admins at site A probably will never see it, since it's sent right out.
The total time on-disk at site A would be about a second.

>We all  know that the 
>system operators are honest so we should not be worried
>that our e-mail is being read.

You always hope that.  Most providers in Cleveland you should have no
problem with.

This mail privacy crap is for the birds.  If you're sending private e-mail,
PGP armor it.

I do.

-- 
Jamie Rishaw [jamie@in-addr.arpa.com] - Senior Network Admin, Multiverse Inc.
rdm: "Religion is obsolete."   gsr: "By what?"  jgr: "Solaris."
PGP Fingerprint:  C4 48 1B 26 18 7B 1F D9  BA C4 9C 7A B1 07 07 E8 
Saturn Geek Code (1.0): 91 SL1 WhTa AT AC CC AU++++ F NG