Comments on: Avoid Pulling a Palin: How to Encrypt Your Email

By: GNC-2008-09-23 #410 Standard Show Micro Vent at Start | Geek News Central

GNC-2008-09-23 #410 Standard Show Micro Vent at Start | Geek News Central — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:37:17 +0000

[...] iRex Roll Out a Wash Someones Going to Jail Cannon 5D Mark II Amazon Android Music Application? Encrypt your Email MySpace Music Screenshots Is CableCard Dead? 5 Easy Speed Hacks (User Beware) Mars Rover [...]

By: Tirana Magazine » Blog Archive » To encrypt or not? That is the question

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:07:23 +0000

[...] the software is more user-friendly now (requiring fewer hoops to jump through than the free, open source versions of PGP), there was a slight performance trade [...]

By: James Harrison

James Harrison — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:44:53 +0000

Even simpler is the Enigmail plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird, which wraps up all the tools in a nice interface. Still get to install GnuPG but key generation and so on has a great interface that even beginners can use.

By: Ro (Lilyhill)

Ro (Lilyhill) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:02:03 +0000

In paragraph 3 of the article: “It’s a command-line tool”, and later, “If you’re using a 32-bit version of Windows”. Command-line? 32-bit? What non-tech is going to know this?

Josh and Paul, you’re absolutely right.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:21:20 +0000

Josh, you are right on! I managed an IT infrastructure for a $2 Billion company, and secured email was by far the biggest pain in the butt!

When our employees received Internet training (before they were allowed email or web access) our corporate lawyer said it quite simply “Do not put anything in email that you would be embarrassed to hear yelled out in Times Square”. Good advise and it still stands.

It is beyond ridiculous to assume the casual user will deal with PKI.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:59:59 +0000

Pratical advice, it only requires that everyone you email can figure out how to manage public key storage, including those (like my parents, and probably yours) who can’t find a file on their computer after they’ve downloaded it.

PKI is a problem that’s larger than many global corporations, let alone mom and pop. But, oh look! It runs on Linux!

The Palin dig was excessive and the premise is a reach, but good work singling her out for being one of the few people in the world who use free email services without PGP. That *was* the reason for this post, right? Good work – I think you’ve shown how stupid she is.

Or not.

By: Adron

Adron — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:31:12 +0000

btw – it isn’t “hacking” it is “Cracking” you’re referring to. Amatuer programmers hack, hard core techies hack, people that break passwords crack passwords…

…so come on, get the lingo right.

By: JohnR

JohnR — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:30:48 +0000

Method of access is irrelevant, use of encryption would have protected the email from “hacking”, “social engineering”, and any potential holes in the host system that would allow the reset of a user’s password.

For the record, I’d consider anyone “breaking into an account that is not their own” hacking, regardless of the method used.

By: Colin Henderson

Colin Henderson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:23:32 +0000

Nice title but the post has nothing at all to do with the circumstances of Palins email. It was not hacked. It was accessed using password reset.