Fwd: Re: Smart card

[Doug Barton]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Smart card
Date: 2017-04-08 10:41
 From: Doug Barton <dougb at dougbarton.us>
To: gnupg-users at gnupg.org

On 2017-04-04 10:27, Teemu Likonen wrote:
> Will Senn [2017-04-04 00:19:11-05] wrote:
> 
>> On 4/3/17 11:48 PM, Doug Barton wrote:
>>> What's your threat model?
>> 
>> [...] I do not really know what I need vs what I think I need. In my
>> uneducated state, I think I want to be as secure as possible [...]
> 
> Considering possible threats is useful or even extremely important but
> here's another point of view. Perhaps it can be just "I'm interested in
> security technology and want to study smart cards. Thus, I'll buy one
> and learn how it works. Maybe it will turn out useful or even
> necessary."

There is nothing wrong with that point of view of course. The danger 
comes in when people promote things like smart cards to newbies as "The 
right way to do PGP." They are/would be overkill for 99.9% of people who 
use PGP, and the additional hassle and complexity serves as a barrier to 
entry.

Doug