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Are there any heavily supported projects that seek to replace email as we know it with a 'secure by default' implementation? I.e. One that keeps the decentrali

by junto 13y ago

Are there any heavily supported projects that seek to replace email as we know it with a 'secure by default' implementation? I.e. One that keeps the decentralized simplicity of email as it is today, whilst both securing it and removing the negatives, such as spam? If Microsoft, Yahoo and Google got together they could flesh this out, and as long as the specifications were open and license free, then other third parties would start to develop SecMail servers.

kijin 13y ago
None that I'm aware of, and IMO none is likely to be launched any time soon. Email is open and license-free, only because it was invented back in the days when not even Richard Stallman saw any need for free software. If email were reinvented today, you'd end up with something very different. It would be copyrighted, patented, and supported by corporations who have strong financial incentives to keep it locked into their proprietary platforms. The only company that I can think of who might have a chance of success at producing an open and license-free reinvention of email is Mozilla, but they don't seem to be particularly interested in email nowadays. Thunderbird has been stuck at version 17 for ages.
leot 13y ago
Only one webmail provider would need to deploy PGP-by-default to start the ball rolling. The system is currently in a dynamically stable (extremely) insecure state. Starting widescale adoption of PGP would disrupt the state of the market and, perhaps, lead to an escalation of deployment security.
kimlelly 13y ago
http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/
betterunix 13y ago
How is PGP not a solution here? You are (a) using the email system, (b) your messages are privacy, and (c) your mail client will perform spam filtering. If you need to hide who you are communicating with, there are anonymous remailers, or you can broadcast your encrypted messages over Usenet. Really, these problems were already solved a long time ago, but people thought it was just paranoid to even suggest that the solutions were necessary.
- junto 13y ago
  Explain PGP to my old mum. It has to be a seamless replacement, without barriers to entry. PGP is certainly not easy for anyone, and that's the problem. It also depends on the receiver and sender having the same technical knowledge. Again not seamless.
  - betterunix 13y ago
    "PGP is certainly not easy for anyone, and that's the problem" I have managed to explain it to people with no technical background, and they were able to use it within a day. It is really not that complicated. Most people give up on it not because of the difficulty of using it, but because they want to be able to read their email from whatever random computer they happen to find lying around. Smartcards are part of the solution, but you would need browser support (yeah, I am looking at you Mozilla) and the willingness to buy them. The wrong approach is to assume that everyone is completely stupid and absolutely helpless. People in general lack knowledge about computers; they does not mean that they cannot be taught something new.
    - mpyne 13y ago
      Firefox supports smartcards. I actually like it better than IE, though it was difficult to make the initial setup happen.

by junto 13y ago

kijin 13y ago

None that I'm aware of, and IMO none is likely to be launched any time soon. Email is open and license-free, only because it was invented back in the days when not even Richard Stallman saw any need for free software. If email were reinvented today, you'd end up with something very different. It would be copyrighted, patented, and supported by corporations who have strong financial incentives to keep it locked into their proprietary platforms. The only company that I can think of who might have a chance of success at producing an open and license-free reinvention of email is Mozilla, but they don't seem to be particularly interested in email nowadays. Thunderbird has been stuck at version 17 for ages.

leot 13y ago

Only one webmail provider would need to deploy PGP-by-default to start the ball rolling. The system is currently in a dynamically stable (extremely) insecure state. Starting widescale adoption of PGP would disrupt the state of the market and, perhaps, lead to an escalation of deployment security.

kimlelly 13y ago

http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/ http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/

betterunix 13y ago

How is PGP not a solution here? You are (a) using the email system, (b) your messages are privacy, and (c) your mail client will perform spam filtering. If you need to hide who you are communicating with, there are anonymous remailers, or you can broadcast your encrypted messages over Usenet. Really, these problems were already solved a long time ago, but people thought it was just paranoid to even suggest that the solutions were necessary.

junto 13y ago
Explain PGP to my old mum. It has to be a seamless replacement, without barriers to entry. PGP is certainly not easy for anyone, and that's the problem. It also depends on the receiver and sender having the same technical knowledge. Again not seamless.
- betterunix 13y ago
  "PGP is certainly not easy for anyone, and that's the problem" I have managed to explain it to people with no technical background, and they were able to use it within a day. It is really not that complicated. Most people give up on it not because of the difficulty of using it, but because they want to be able to read their email from whatever random computer they happen to find lying around. Smartcards are part of the solution, but you would need browser support (yeah, I am looking at you Mozilla) and the willingness to buy them. The wrong approach is to assume that everyone is completely stupid and absolutely helpless. People in general lack knowledge about computers; they does not mean that they cannot be taught something new.
  - mpyne 13y ago
    Firefox supports smartcards. I actually like it better than IE, though it was difficult to make the initial setup happen.