5 ms·

This site promptly had me returning back to GPG again when it first came out and I got access to it. After a couple months the initial novelty of it all wore o

by bojo 11y ago

This site promptly had me returning back to GPG again when it first came out and I got access to it. After a couple months the initial novelty of it all wore off (yet again). It's a decent idea, but when even the tech people in your circles can't be bothered with your encrypted emails it's a sign that we need to stop fooling ourselves and move on to whatever the next idea is.

afarrell 11y ago
In the ham radio community, they have days to practice sending messages to other hams. Perhaps we should have something similar?
- ytjohn 11y ago
  This is a good idea, we have Field day, SET exercises, and weekly nets. There are always contests where hams rack up points by making contacts. We have contests that are specific days (like field day), and standing awards liked "Worked All States" (you made a contact to someone in each of the 50 states). In the computer tech world, we do rank ourselves. We post w3c validation badges on our page, we run our sites through ssllabs.com for a security report card. We work towards being an IPv6 Sage from he.net. So why not a GPG contest? Keybase might be a good site to organize such things. Generate a key and upload it to a keyserver is a basic level. You key can be graded based on bits (1024 vs 2048 vs 4096) and algorithm chosen. Send an encrypted email awards more points. Send a signed message for more points. Receive an encrypted message (and respond with the unencrypted text) is more points. Receive 3 emails and reply to the one that is properly signed for more points. At some point in your journey you can start socializing. Advertise on your blog/github/keybase/social media that you are participating in a gpg contact contest. People can send you signed messages, you can send to them. You both sign and forward the message to keybase, who uses the signature to validate both of you exchanged messages with gpg. Keybase could even provide uuid/tokens to hand out (encrypted) and further validate. The more gpg contacts you accumulate, the higher your score. The "worked all states" from ham radio could be an achievement in gpg contesting as well.
- ytjohn 11y ago
  In addition to my other comment, it's always ironic seeing ham radio mentioned in an encryption thread. Are communications must not be encrypted or sent in a way with the goal of obscuring the meaning. I've been looking at truly peer to peer communication systems to use on an amateur radio mesh network with no internet access. The best solutions have encryption baked in. I would have to get a major project going to rip the encryption aspect out in order to use them on amateur frequencies/amateur power levels.

by bojo 11y ago

afarrell 11y ago

In the ham radio community, they have days to practice sending messages to other hams. Perhaps we should have something similar?

ytjohn 11y ago
This is a good idea, we have Field day, SET exercises, and weekly nets. There are always contests where hams rack up points by making contacts. We have contests that are specific days (like field day), and standing awards liked "Worked All States" (you made a contact to someone in each of the 50 states). In the computer tech world, we do rank ourselves. We post w3c validation badges on our page, we run our sites through ssllabs.com for a security report card. We work towards being an IPv6 Sage from he.net. So why not a GPG contest? Keybase might be a good site to organize such things. Generate a key and upload it to a keyserver is a basic level. You key can be graded based on bits (1024 vs 2048 vs 4096) and algorithm chosen. Send an encrypted email awards more points. Send a signed message for more points. Receive an encrypted message (and respond with the unencrypted text) is more points. Receive 3 emails and reply to the one that is properly signed for more points. At some point in your journey you can start socializing. Advertise on your blog/github/keybase/social media that you are participating in a gpg contact contest. People can send you signed messages, you can send to them. You both sign and forward the message to keybase, who uses the signature to validate both of you exchanged messages with gpg. Keybase could even provide uuid/tokens to hand out (encrypted) and further validate. The more gpg contacts you accumulate, the higher your score. The "worked all states" from ham radio could be an achievement in gpg contesting as well.
ytjohn 11y ago
In addition to my other comment, it's always ironic seeing ham radio mentioned in an encryption thread. Are communications must not be encrypted or sent in a way with the goal of obscuring the meaning. I've been looking at truly peer to peer communication systems to use on an amateur radio mesh network with no internet access. The best solutions have encryption baked in. I would have to get a major project going to rip the encryption aspect out in order to use them on amateur frequencies/amateur power levels.