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Command-Line Crypto From Phil Zimmermann, Again
They aren't paying for a pretty logo. The real reason is that the GUI version of PGP (along with other graphical encryption software, like the GNU Privacy Guard) aren't even in the same market.
Casual computer users have never laid out much money for encryption. The widespread use of PGP in its original incarnation (during the era of Zimmermann's prosecution for allowing it to be exported) can be attributed as much to its zero-dollars price as to a generalized interest in privacy. Home and hobby users are not cut out from buying Veridis's software -- for about a hundred dollars, you can buy a personal use version of the command-line version. The real money isn't in individuals keeping their tax records private, though -- Zimmermann and Veridis, like NAI (whose PGP-based product is called E-Business Server) are really aiming at commercial and governmental datacenters, and for customers willing to accept a much higher pricetag.
Insurance companies, banks, credit card processing centers, state records -- anywhere financial or otherwise confidential records are exchanged or stored en masse -- these all need encryption which works at the command-line. More precisely, they need crypto software which can work without direct human intervention at all. Instead, massive data centers need tools which can be called by scripts and other programs, so servers, or server farms, can spend their time crunching numbers rather than drawing pictures.
The name is familiar ... The commercial competition FileCrypt faces is familial -- it's the same product from NAI (sold from their McAffee division) that prevents Zimmermann and Veridis from calling their software PGP, even though NAI now labels their product E-Business Server. And though many companies have homegrown cryptographic solutions, Zimmermann says he knows of no other packaged software offering the high-volume encryption that the products from NAI or Veridis do.
And, he emphasizes, what they do is very similar. He says of the Veridis command-line product compared to NAI's, "It's drop-in compatible, identical in operation ... you could run the same perl scripts, the same command-line arguments."
If you want to buy Veridis' encryption software licensed for electronic commerce (not one-person use), hold onto your wallet: the price jumps about 50 times, to a shade under $5000, which Zimmermann describes as a bargain -- at least compared to the competition.
(Prices on the McAfee website show a one-year subscription-based license for E-Business Server starting at $6,875; $14,375 buys a perpetual license, with no included support.)
Both sides of that fence. And of competing in this case with a product that originated from his own crypto software (and his own company, PGP Inc.), Zimmermann says "I just don't really think of that as my product any more. It's in the hands of NAI, all the engineers have been fired. I just don't feel psychologically connected to that product." To look and not to sell. Especially when it comes to cryptographic software, code openness is considered not just a virtue but a near necessity. Peer-review and independent auditing, after all, are about the only ways you can tell that software isn't shuttling credit card numbers to the wrong person.The business model of selling high-priced crypto software at thousands of dollars per processor doesn't mesh well with gratis software, though. To that end, Zimmermann says the FileCrypt code will be soon be available for download and inspection under terms which he says will be similar to those under which users can download the code for PGP Corporation's version of the PGP-based desktop software. (PGP Corporation's terms are available though their source code page).
And here the english->german->english bablefish translation in hopes of gaining clearer insight into just what exactly the author is trying to say to you, the reader.
Some months ago PGP creator Phil Carpenter a Reseller for the present graphic version of the software, which it originally laichte, produced by PGP corporation. Now Carpenter straight began, by its own website a modern command line coding product called FileCrypt, which has to sell its roots in an older version of PGP Confusingly enough, this software produced from a called company (Veridis) and does not say PGP on the box, because it does not permit-prove can. Network user, the PGP Inc.. 1997 acquired, holds the rights for silence to this name; when NaI away PGP to PGP corporation 2002 stretch, they held the command line version. Open PGP, for which Carpenter serves as technical advisors (as well as a Reseller), is to be sold contractually not capable, a command line version. (it is on the board of Veridis in addition.) But why you place Text-nur version of customs software anyway forwards if the Auftischversion GUI fied for years and matured costs less?
All your base are belong to us!
Recently I noticed that my teenage son Ezekiel had begun to encrypt his emails with a program called PGP. I was concerned because I'd always covertly monitored their email for any hints of illegal activity, drug use or interest in the occult - some of his classmates have begun playing Dungeons and Dragons and listening to KISS. Since Ezekiel was now using PGP, his activites were hidden from me!
Additionally, I also overheard him talking of using a program called Stegasaurus to embed secret information into normal-looking pictures. Terrified that my son might be speaking in some sort of sinful code, I immediately grounded him for a month. He was only allowed to go to school and Bible study.
Anyways, I've done several days worth of research on this and discovered a few things about PGP that I'd like to share with the readers of these newsgroups. To begin with, I realized that many of the claims made by the creators of PGP are blatently false. Although I do not have a background in mathematics (I have an AA in Photography) I was easily able to rebuild Ezekiel's private key via his public key and one of his encrypted messages.
Of course I am above-average in intelligence, but PGP is supposedly unbreakable! Perhaps crytogrophers aren't as smart as they believe? Fortunately in this case Ezekiel was just discussing a girl he met in school - a situation I harshly reprimanded him for. However, while PGP may be a program with flaws, it got me thinking about other programs. Perhaps someone will construct a PGP-like program that cannot be so easily broken; one that would take days of computer time to hack!
My concern with a program like this is that people who use cryptography always do so because they have something to hide. A sense of guilt and shame seems to drive them. They know that they are doing something wrong and desperately want to hide it from the eyes of the world (although hiding it from the eyes of God is another matter! LOL!)
A study recently released by the Institute for Family Computing revealed that the top three uses of cryptography were for 1) "terrorist-related activity" 2) pedophillia and 3) drug abuse. In fact as far as I can tell, no legitimate use was on the top ten at all!
What scares me about this is that law-enforcement agencies will be unable to sift through email to find people who are breaking the law, or otherwise engaged in suspicious activity. At a time when our nation is under siege, I find it disturbing that people are working on developing cryptography that cannot be broken, even by our protectors in the FBI and CIA! Only those with something to hide truly need cryptography.
Thus I urge cryptogrophers world wide to refrain from working on such programs, until our nation is no longer at war. I would ask those of other countries to respect our right to self-defense and aid us in our time of trouble. Your cryptographic skills can be better put to use trying to find terrorists than to assist them.
Thank you for your time.
Follow this link, i explain my self there
My post wasnt a duplicate. Shashdot wont let you post a message thats identical to another message
I am not a troll, i am a responsible, contributing member of the slash dot community.
I know Rob Malda and his wife personally. Actually, i'm an editor on slashdot, and i have admin permissions to the site maintence scripts.
Dont make me call Rob Malda up on the telephone and have him ban you IP address, anonymous coward.
But why introduce a text-only version of utility software, anyway, when the GUI-fied desktop version has been maturing for years and costs less?
Or more to the point, why post the article at all?