Secure Messaging in Ubuntu

[Kent Borg]

On 09/08/2013 06:21 AM, Alan Holt wrote:
> NSA use stolen SSL certificates or they ask to get real one from 
> companies like Google or Yahoo.
> To decrypt 2048 bit SSL is physically unpossible.

It seems that really good cryptography is still good cryptography and 
the NSA cannot crack really good cryptography. The trick is that it has 
to be good, without holes.

The keys need to be kept secret. The protocols have to be well designed. 
The software has to be correctly implemented. End-point computers need 
to be secure.  And nothing else can go wrong or an opponent could get 
in.  And if your opponent is really powerful and really cares about you 
and wants to concentrate on you--you are in trouble.

But it is all worth trying: The NSA can't concentrate on everyone, they 
need an efficient bulk-rate approach, and that is to spy on unencrypted 
communications.  So encrypt.  Try to do it right, if you succeed great, 
if you come close you maybe made the spies lives more difficult.

The fact you are on an Ubuntu list means you like open source software, 
and open source crypto software is more likely to be well implemented.  
Commercial, closed source software might be buzzword-compliant, but who 
knows what is really inside?  From a flawed design to a flawed 
implementation to government backdoors...you don't know.

Computer security is not about service packs, antivirus software, and 
firewalls. It is design, implementation, and skepticism.

-kb