[kwlug-disc] Generating and using PGP keys

[Paul Nijjar]

> 	Never type your passphrase on a computer you don't
> trust.  
> 
> This introduces a number of usage restrictions, and often
> means you
> can't read your email until you get to your trusted
> machine.

And for those of us who use webmail from public computers exclusively, it means we don't use GPG at all. I don't have Internet at home. I could potentially treat my work computer as "trusted" until I am fired. But many other people are in similar situations to mine.

I am also hesitant to advocate GPG for a person who connects their home machine directly to the Internet without a firewall in between. 

These have been the barriers for me using GPG personally, which is why people on the Internet impersonate me. 

I wish there was a good way for me to get around these barriers, but the best hope I have is to download my mail to a USB key, take them home and respond to/sign them, and then figure out how to send them again. Depending on my paranoia level I might be willing to go to these lengths, but I don't think many people are (and some people still do not have computers at home in 2009). 

The funny thing is that this should be a solved problem, since a good fraction of the world's internet users do so via Internet Cafes, not via connections to computers they trust at home. 

- Paul





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