4 ms·

Good time for someone to build a GOOD secure email replacement?

9 points by Hilyin 13y ago

I don't have the skills necessary to build it, but this feels like this scandal could be a good catalyst to start an adoption of a secure email replacement.

claudius 13y ago
Email is secure iff you use it properly. Just like everything else.
- glitch273 13y ago
  How about a system where it's secure even if the user is dumb.
  - claudius 13y ago
    Do you have one example of a system that is secure even if the user is dumb (for example forgets to lock the front door)?
    - sx43 13y ago
      Bio-metric passwords (i.e. fingerprint / eye scan).
      - claudius 13y ago
        Fingerprints are left all over the place all the time, and it is probably not much more difficult to acquire eye scans. And for such a system, the user would have to re-use his passwords at many different places again…
        infinii 13y ago
        “My name is Werner Brandis. My voice is my password"
hardwaresofton 13y ago
In the end, isn't it more about where it's built than the product? If the product is within reach of an unreasonable governing body, then it's in danger right?
luxpir 13y ago
Perhaps someone could explain how starting from scratch and building an encrypted p2p email system would be insecure? That is, an imaginary mail client (hosted or local) with encrypted storage, transfer and constant processing of emails routed to other active mail clients. Perhaps split and routed over several nodes, as with Skype. Without the PGP-style need to exchange keys in advance, and based on an open standard of some kind. File transfer could be interesting this way, as with BitTorrent Sync. Spam filtering an anonymous, encrypted service such as this seems nigh on impossible. Could there be a way to enforce accountability? Or whitelisting only messages you want to receive on reviewing sender/title details? Not any practical way I can conceive. Perhaps the only way is to manually approve each new contact. Clicking 'no' to 1000 spam addresses a month might get a little tedious, however. A shared blacklist could do the trick, but it's hardly a robust solution. I've often thought this to be the most obvious direction to look in for a solution, yet I'm very sure that I'm simplifying the likely vast problems its developers would face.
- luxpir 13y ago
  So, after using HNSearch for recent PGP comments, it turns out that at least one such solution exists [1]. It can be found here: https://bitmessage.org https://bitmessage.org, along with its interesting whitepaper from 2012 outlining its operation. I'll try to submit it to HN to raise awareness. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5845858 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5845858

9 points by Hilyin 13y ago

I don't have the skills necessary to build it, but this feels like this scandal could be a good catalyst to start an adoption of a secure email replacement.

claudius 13y ago

Email is secure iff you use it properly. Just like everything else.

glitch273 13y ago
How about a system where it's secure even if the user is dumb.
- claudius 13y ago
  Do you have one example of a system that is secure even if the user is dumb (for example forgets to lock the front door)?
  - sx43 13y ago
    Bio-metric passwords (i.e. fingerprint / eye scan).
    - claudius 13y ago
      Fingerprints are left all over the place all the time, and it is probably not much more difficult to acquire eye scans. And for such a system, the user would have to re-use his passwords at many different places again…
      - infinii 13y ago
        “My name is Werner Brandis. My voice is my password"

hardwaresofton 13y ago

In the end, isn't it more about where it's built than the product? If the product is within reach of an unreasonable governing body, then it's in danger right?

luxpir 13y ago

Perhaps someone could explain how starting from scratch and building an encrypted p2p email system would be insecure? That is, an imaginary mail client (hosted or local) with encrypted storage, transfer and constant processing of emails routed to other active mail clients. Perhaps split and routed over several nodes, as with Skype. Without the PGP-style need to exchange keys in advance, and based on an open standard of some kind. File transfer could be interesting this way, as with BitTorrent Sync. Spam filtering an anonymous, encrypted service such as this seems nigh on impossible. Could there be a way to enforce accountability? Or whitelisting only messages you want to receive on reviewing sender/title details? Not any practical way I can conceive. Perhaps the only way is to manually approve each new contact. Clicking 'no' to 1000 spam addresses a month might get a little tedious, however. A shared blacklist could do the trick, but it's hardly a robust solution. I've often thought this to be the most obvious direction to look in for a solution, yet I'm very sure that I'm simplifying the likely vast problems its developers would face.

luxpir 13y ago
So, after using HNSearch for recent PGP comments, it turns out that at least one such solution exists [1]. It can be found here: https://bitmessage.org https://bitmessage.org, along with its interesting whitepaper from 2012 outlining its operation. I'll try to submit it to HN to raise awareness. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5845858 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5845858