10 Reasons to Get Your Crypto Working Now

by Baron Earl

2002-12-23 22:56:26

Encryption

Need a New Year's Resolution worth keeping? How about "This is the year I start encrypting everything"? Your e-mail, your hard disk contents, your boot sector, your web browsing, your porn. Encrypt it all. Here are 10 reasons why you need to start encrypting everything you do.

1. You might get hit by a truck tomorrow. Do you really want your loved ones looking at all of the porn you downloaded?
2. Your computer at work may contain snoopware courtesy of your boss. Using an anonymizer service or your own proxy server can keep your boss from second-guessing your use of company time.
3. White House plans wide monitoring of the Net. Your harmless e-mail may contain key words that will trigger a further investigation. Encrypt it and turn those pesky key words like "bomb" and "hostage" into indecipherable gibberish.
4. The use of Web bugs is up 500%. Switch to a free browser such as Mozilla that can be configured to expire all cookies when you close your browser and refuse all cookies coming from domains other than the one you're visiting.
5. Windows XP is full of security holes that make life easier for those who would snoop on you. Time to get off the Microsoft bandwagon and switch to Linux, FreeBSD, or Mac OS-X. God knows what horrors the NSA will stick into the next version of Windows.
6. Unrelated lawsuits. Get sued or get arrested for one thing, have your computer impounded, who knows what other questionable things might be found? Remember: It's not whether you're innocent or guilty, it's whether the district attorney can make a jury believe that you're guilty.
7. The RIAA. Unless you can show that you own the CD that that MP3 was burned from, the RIAA is going to assume you made an illegal copy, and you may be fined $150,000 per MP3 found on your hard disk. Encrypt your hard disk and no one can look at your system without knowing your pass phrase.
8. The BSA. You'd better have the original packaging with the original license number on the original license agreement for every piece of software on your hard drive, or the BSA is going to get you for $50,000 for every piece of pirated software they find.
9. The Information Awareness Office. Just look at their logo. Creepy, huh? Look at it again. 'Nuff said. Now go encrypt everything on your computer. Install IPSec. Secure your routers. Set up Zone Alarm.
10. Every bit of encrypted traffic makes it more difficult for snoopers to snoop, because there's more to decrypt. Run a web server? Set it up so that is only uses https. Send e-mail? Use PGP or GPG. Stop using telnet and ftp and switch to ssh and sftp/scp.

Encrypt everything you can. Flood the world with encrypted data. Help make it easier for everyone to be secure than it is for them to be insecure. If you don't start taking steps to ensure your privacy now, that eye in the keyhole may be watching you next!

Check it out yourself

punchbowl@pigdog.org