Boastfully ignorant reporters [Was: Zergo can do secure TTPs

[Phillip Temple]

At 04:38 PM 7/15/98 +0100, you wrote:

>Love that paranoia!

How dare you accuse a ukcrypto member of being paranoid ;-)

>So why are so many publishing houses getting into Internet publishing
>(including our own, very, very small one - see below)?

Because they are starting to realise they have no choice? A lot of the
attempts seem to be half hearted. Most of them seem to be little more
that just a replica copy of their printed material.

>And, does anybody really still think the world is a place where a coterie
>of publishing houses control information?

Yes.

>So what happened to all the desktop publishing,

Limited to very small niche markets.

>telephones, fax machines,

Not broadcast mediums.

>satellite TV channels,

Who owns our statellite TV? Rupert Murdoch. Head of News International,
the publishers.

>and international travellers - to say nothing of e-mail and the Internet.

Unfortunately the later two need more penetration before they become mass
media.

>The distribution of information, in traditional formats as well as in
>electronic formats, does not need big companies and government licensing. 
>The reason there's been so little in the mainstream press about crypto
>issues is nothing at all to do with big publishing business conspiracy.

To be fair, William never suggested it was in the way I read it. He just
said they wouldn't be too upset. Maybe I missed something.

>It's more to do with the fact that even to most IT people it's bloody
>complicated. You guys live and breathe it, so you understand it. I can get
>to grips with many technical issues in IT but PKI is hard to explain to the
>average person. And if it's hard to explain to them, it's doubly hard for
>them to think they need to worry about it. 
>Somehow you've got to find a way of interpreting the issues in a way that
>will make ordinary people - citizens, officials, politicians - think
>they're worth getting concerned about. 

This is very true. It is also the reason I was impressed with Phil Zimmerman
at the Infosec98 show, I though he was very eloquent and explained the issues
very clearly.

Phillip.