Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!odin!pcg From: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc Subject: Re: Mail security Message-ID: Date: 7 Aug 90 15:59:21 GMT References: <899@lot.ACA.MCC.COM> <19365@well.sf.ca.us> <1649@rossignol.Princeton.EDU> Sender: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP Followup-To: comp.mail.misc Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 27 In-reply-to: tr@samadams.princeton.edu's message of 3 Aug 90 18:00:59 GMT Tom Reingold (tr) writes: tr> When there are problems with the mailing system, the postmaster gets tr> copies of private email mailed to him. It's analogous to falling in tr> his lap. It happened to me today. A friend had sent me mail, his tr> system provided a bogus address, I didn't get it, my postmaster did. tr> He handed me a printed copy. I was lucky that he could tell it was tr> intended for me. And I was lucky it wasn't very private in nature. Only a fool would send private mail or keeps private files on systems where any root user can read any file (and it is fairly easy to become root), especially if such systems are networked, and NFS is used or PCs are connected to the wire. You can be nearly sure that somebody will be snooping the wire all the time, for example. I would like every new user on every computer or network system that is not certified for multi level security to receive a large sign saying: Don't count on privacy. At least the system manager can always read your plaintext files and mail. Systems that give dependable privacy cost *a lot*, even more than you think. -- Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk