Army signals security & "Clansmen" series radios

[David Swarbrick]

>     PGP does not 'just use PK ciphers' because, if it did, it would be too
> slow by far for most purposes. The fact that it uses a block cipher at the
> main engine, speeds things up greatly but, as implemented in PGP the last
> time I looked at it,  does not add at all to whatever level of
> security the
> PK encryptor of the block cipher key may give. Neither does the use of a
> block cipher in PGP diminish the weakness of the 'web of trust' concept
> which is central to PGP  when used as 'strong cryptography for
> the masses'.
> But we surely don't need to rake over this again.

Always, and again. Does not the nature of the 'web of trust' encourage the
recognition of the inherent weakness of all trust systems.

Your military background seems to have encouraged in you a belief that there
are people - superiors - who are to be trusted, but to the extent that you
hold that view, I cannot share it.

I find the top-down trust models inherently scary. They are distinctly not
based upon trust but on the feeling of some sort of compulsion. 'You will
trust me' A soldier does what he does not because he trusts the officer, but
because he bloody well just must. It works as an equivalent to trust in all
respects save that it just isn't trust. At its enlightened best it can be
authority.


David Swarbrick, Solicitor, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1RW
T: +44(0)1484 722531 F: +44(0)1484 716617 m: david@swarb.freeuk.com
www.swarb.freeuk.com
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