Public Key Cryptography

[Nicholas Bohm]

At 04:41 PM 8/29/1998 +0100, Markus Kuhn wrote:
[snip]

>However, I am convinced
>that cryptography allows to set up digital contract mechanisms that are
>in any respect as least as secure as the extremely weak protections that
>we have at the moment in the form of traditional mechanisms such as
>handwritten signatures, tamper-evident paper documents, etc.

When it comes to contracts we are talking law as well as technology, which
is where some new problems begin.  Technology does not yet, as far as I
know, let me be really confident that my private key has not been
surreptitiously filched.  But all those who offer me commerce opportunities
based on the use of my private key leave me with the whole risk that
someone else can forge my signature undetectably.  This is not where the
current (admittedly much higher) risks rest.  The price for reducing the
risk is that I must carry what's left, and that doesn't yet seem a good
bargain.

[snip]

	Regards,

		Nicholas Bohm

Salkyns, Great Canfield,
Takeley, Bishop's Stortford CM22 6SX, UK

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PGP RSA 1024 bit public key ID: 0x08340015.  Fingerprint:
9E 15 FB 2A 54 96 24 37  98 A2 E0 D1 34 13 48 07
PGP DSS/DH 1024/3072 public key ID: 0x899DD7FF.  Fingerprint:
5248 1320 B42E 84FC 1E8B  A9E6 0912 AE66 899D D7FF