Someone has harvested my address

[David Shaw]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 06:22:17PM -0500, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
> David Shaw wrote:
> > So, for a 1-sentence response, how about "Using GPG doesn't make you
> > perfectly secure: it just makes you a heck of a lot more secure than
> > you'd be without it."
> 
> My rephrasing would be,
> 
> "Using GnuPG doesn't make your communications perfectly secure: however,
> it potentially makes your communications a heck of a lot more secure
> than you'd be without it."
> 
> A heavy emphasis needs to be placed on 'potentially'.  The elephant in
> the middle of the room is just how much uncertainty there is within that
> word.  It isn't so much the uncertainty which bothers me, but how
> nigh-impossible it is to pin it down.

Yes.  This isn't new though - just updated for the modern era.  We
could rewrite that sentence many different ways, ranging from:

  "Whispering doesn't make your communications perfectly secure:
  however, it potentially makes your communications a heck of a lot
  more secure than you'd be without it."

to:

  "Isolating yourself in a faraday cage on a deserted island doesn't
  make your communications perfectly secure: however, it potentially
  makes your communications a heck of a lot more secure than you'd be
  without it."

There is always some way to lose the benefits of whatever tool (GPG,
whispering, etc) you are using.

David