Re: they should have used crypto...

[Keith Dawson]

At 9:24 AM -0500 11/23/99, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>Alibris is both a rare book dealer and an ISP serving other book dealers; they 
>kept copies of messages from Amazon.com to other dealers.

I wrote the Media Grok piece on this that'll be coming out later
today. The gig is media crit, not cyber activism, so I didn't try
to make such a point (the editor would have cut it anyway). But
it's a good touchstone for mainstream acceptance of crypto: imagine
a world in which every routine email from Amazon comes wrapped.

_
Keith Dawson  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://dawson.nu/
Layer of ash separates morning and evening milk.

they should have used crypto...

[Steven M. Bellovin]

[ Steve asked me to add:
  Perry, could you amend my posting to include the following URL, too:
  http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-Internet-Bookseller-Settlement.html ]

Naturally, those of us on this list advocate routine use of cryptography.  But 
cases where cryptography or the lack thereof is demonstrably 
commercially significant are rare.  A new one has just come to light.

According to the 23 November Wall Street Journal (if you subscribe to their 
Web site, see http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB943305134720688183.htm), a 
rare book dealer has pleaded guilty to intercepting more than 4,000 email 
messages, in an effort to gather market intelligence.  (The company claimes 
that the interceptions were innocent; the Justice Department disagrees.)  
Alibris is both a rare book dealer and an ISP serving other book dealers; they 
kept copies of messages from Amazon.com to other dealers.

There's no mention in the article about how routine encryption would have 
proteced the victims...

--Steve Bellovin