Key safety vs Backup : History of a bad day (key-restoration problem)

[Atom Smasher]

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007, Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> If you are comfortable with the NSA and/or GCHQ wondering why you've got 
> AES-encrypted data hidden in a JPEG that's floating around the internet, 
> then go ahead with this.
=============

i wouldn't be any more concerned than i am now, with non-hidden 
cipher-texts coming in/out of my mailbox.


>> even with a reasonably strong pass-phrase i wouldn't want to walk 
>> around with my secret key on a flash-drive with my physical keys, but 
>> hidden in a JPG of family/friends/pets it would be easily overlooked if 
>> i lost possession of the flash-drive.
>
> Why not?
=============

paranoia, maybe...? or just making sure that my secret key isn't low 
hanging fruit.


> I do not understand this irrational belief that people have in the 
> inadequacy of AES to protect their private keys.  Will it make people 
> feel better if I post my own private key to the list?  (I'm perfectly 
> willing to, if that's what's necessary to prove a point.)
==============

i'll agree that it's somewhat irrational, but it does give me a warm fuzzy 
feeling that my 2048/4096 bit secret keys are not only encrypted with a 
reasonably strong pass-phrase, but also stored on an encrypted file system 
and not publicly available, and all backup copies are also double 
encrypted.

regarding my faith in AES, just check out the preferences on my public 
key.


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