Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: public key cryptography to eliminate/detect forged messages
Keywords: crypt kerberos usenet cancel
Message-ID: <3978@looking.on.ca>
Date: 10 Aug 89 18:42:14 GMT
References: <1038@anise.acc.com> <12007@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Reply-To: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 14
Class: discussion

In many ways USENET takes the original Unix philosophy.  Remember the
introduction to Unix that started with, "here's how to crash Unix?"
Nobody bothers, because it's so easy.

On USENET, forging a message is no challenge.  It happens pretty rarely,
really.

If you used cryptosystems, you would have to appoint one single person
who could issue control messages, and if that person left or got
irresponsible, then *everybody* would have to change very quickly.

Pretty messy.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473