Many would consider me an Internet old timer. I used ‘The Internet’; then ARPAnet back in the days when I worked as a Software Engineer for a US defense contractor. Securing communications and having confidence in message integrity; both in the identity of the sender and in the integrity in the content have always been important if not vital to communications over the Internet. I was struck by this blog post (see also) in part because I have heard of Filippo’s work but most of all because I completely agree with his message.
The problem being discussed here is that in order to create and maintain privacy on the Internet we, many of the users of the Internet have been using key based software. And for many it is getting harder and harder to maintain the keys. The author of the article I cited, Filippo Valsorda writes about how he is giving up on PGP.
I can’t disagree with anything that Valsorda wrote and my own experiences have been similar.
My takeaway from Valsorda’s essay is that technology moves on and advances. There are numerous advancements that help insure the privacy of data both at rest on a computer and transmitted over the Internet. The challenge is as ‘an Internet old timer’ to stay abreast and aware of changes and new development.
Brian's End of the Internet 