Quote:
Originally Posted by sundialsvcs
(Post 5736299)
Actually, no. A rapidly increasing amount of traffic on the Internet is being encrypted, such as any WikiPedia lookup that you do. E-mail messages should always be encrypted, or at least digitally signed. When you are using an open communication network that is also worldwide, it is perfectly ordinary to expect that you will use encryption-based techniques, because, without them, you have no assurances whatsoever: - That the message you received came from the person who sent it.
- That the message you received is the exact message that was sent.
- (Optional(!)) That no one else knows what it says.
I continue to be dumbfounded that corporations sent very sensitive information by open e-mail with no attempt even at digital signing. I am also amazed that GMail, possibly the most widely-used mail service in the world, has not provided message-validation, message-signing, and yes, message encryption as part of its routine offering. What a difference it would make if any message I received from "Southwest Airlines" instantly showed itself to be valid. (And, why not intercept and delete any message purporting to come from that source which does not carry its signature?)
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For business purposes, yes, some are starting to use encrypted and signed email but for private purposes, not that I have heard or read about. The UK government is also looking into making encrypted end-to-end encryption illegal without a back door built in and you can bet that anyone using PGP or the like for every email will be on a list -- it may be a long list and may not come to anything but they will be on a list.
As to HTTPS well, yes and no I suppose. Yes, there is a push to HTTPS but, again, their is a push by governments to have this broken either by design, by ISPs or other means.
Also, the UK government mandates that everyone's internet history be stored for a year so, again, anything (out of the ordinary) would be picked up. While, of course, using Google or Wikipedia encrypted wouldn't raise any eyebrows using encrypted email, chat or file transfer services or something like a VPN or, even worse, ToR would certainly "point to having something to hide".
Clipper chip was defeated, encryption which could not easily be broken was allowed to be sold to the world and used an all looked well. Then the UK government declared that anyone using encryption must hand over the key when asked by the police or go straight to jail and, effectively, made it dangerous to encrypt ones data in the UK. Then they mandated ISPs actively monitor and block access to certain sites and types of site, using deep packet inspection where necessary, then they made it mandatory that logs be kept of the internet activity of all citizens. Internet use in the UK is pretty much set up like China nowadays. Thankfully posting things like this still isn't (yet) illegal here though.
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