What's Holding Back Encryption?

nine-times writes "After many years in IT, I've been surprised to notice how much of my traffic is still unencrypted. A lot of businesses that I interact with (both business and personal) are still using unencrypted FTP, and very few people use any kind of encryption for email. Most websites are still using unencrypted HTTP. DNSSEC seems to be picking up some steam, but still doesn't seem to be widely used. I would have thought there would be a concerted effort to move toward encryption for the sake of security, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I wanted to ask the Slashdot community, what do you think the hold up is? Are the existing protocols somehow not good enough? Are the protocols fine, but not supported well enough in software? Is it too complicated to manage the various encryption protocols and keys? Is it ignorance or apathy on the part of the IT community, and that we've failed to demand it from our vendors?"

Comments

Why?

[FlyByPC]

For most of the Web surfing that I do, full https encryption simply isn't needed. Why do I need encryption (which adds another quite significant protocol layer) to surf Slashdot or CNN or xkcd?

OK, granted, I probably should use encryption or TOR for that last one or the 'raptors will catch on. But other than that... why?

Re:Self-signed is no good.

[R2.0]

"With a 15 Mbit residential connection and a 2Ghz processor, I find it hard to believe that the performance drop will matter...to me.

To the server, maybe.

Oh, and what's wrong with a self-signed cert? The data is still encrypted, isn't it? "

You flew in a private jet to Congressional hearings, didn't you?

Re:I have encrypted this post

[badzilla]

I got in A LOT OF TROUBLE when I decrypted that! Next time at least have the decency to flag it NSFW.

Encryption Ensmyption

[wtbname]

I'd settle for my damn financial sites not forcing me to arbitrary length limited passwords with only alpha numeric characters.

SPECIAL CHARACTERS and spaces ARE VALID PASSWORD CHARACTERS. STOP LIMITING MY CHOICE IN PASSWORDS.

If I want to set my password to

"*?@> $}}% v ^{@:># >>@@* &&^% £ÜÄ-AbN-

Your site needs to accept that.

Re:I have encrypted this post

[93 Escort Wagon]

kkjkjGHIUgibilhjGHLiubhjbiu78HVji67gfUKGHVuygjh VljhbvolygILJKbIyugIJbikhjbKJBkbvkjnfJ.a,mx jchkdjqJiufhpi9fu{ywe9f8iunsiochjaijkcs

The fun part is that the (UK) cops can demand a decryption key for that, and lock me up when I inevitably fail to provide one....

Like many others, you made the mistake of choosing a weak key. Here ya go:

"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine"