[comp.society] Mail security The Computers and Society Digest, Volume 5, #2

CStacy@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Christopher Stacy) (01/30/91)

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In the above message, David Brownell writes about how very hard it
would be to have encrypted mail, and I reply, "What's the big deal?"

Seriously though, this feature has been available for over a decade
in the mail agent that I am using, and I'm know there are others.
The author can choose from multiple encryption techniques, and the
header simply says which one the receiving mail-reader should apply.
The network is not involved at all.

The mail transport agents don't do anything special, but they also
don't secret the fact of communication; that would obviously require
more cooperation.  But functions for just keeping your message
contents secure have long been commonly available.

Christopher