Relevance of e-mail (was [OT] Why are you using the GPG / PGP keys?)

[Mark H. Wood]

OK.

1.  Establish a pattern:  none genuine without this signature.  I
    understand it's not possible to prove that an unsigned message
    didn't come from me, but this couldn't hurt.

2.  OTOH I *can* show that a signed message must have been made with
    knowledge of a specific key, which I assert that I control.  When
    I do write something, I want my authorship to be believed.

3.  Habit.  The same reason I always automatically relock doors when I've
    entered:  if I have a policy then I don't have to make judgments
    in most cases.  (Yes, I *always* carry a house key.)  Considering
    all the gooey rubbish I *don't* send to my correspondents, I hold
    that the small cost of a signature is entirely negligible.

4.  Privacy.  While I prefer to hand-deliver things like new
    passwords, I'm willing to send them in encrypted emails if someone
    insists.  Or I might want to write to a family member something
    that's not super-secret but is nobody else's business.

5.  Cool factor. *blush*

6.  My signing habit is my tiny contribution toward a future in which
    any unsigned email is automatically suspect.  This would make it
    feasible, for example, to set up a rule sending all mail with
    no or unknown signature to a UCE folder (or the bitbucket).  I
    won't hold my breath while I wait, though.

I should distinguish signing and encryption.  I can count on my fingers
the number of encrypted emails I've sent, but I assert that I sign all
emails addressed to humans.  (Some mailing-list robots are fragile and
have trouble with signatures when directly addressed.  Boo.)

-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mwood at IUPUI.Edu
Machines should not be friendly.  Machines should be obedient.
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