Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!agate!bionet!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!mailrus!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm!maine.bitnet!michael
From: MICHAEL@MAINE
Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers
Subject: Re: simple encryption in mail
Message-ID: <1119MICHAEL@MAINE>
Date: 23 Jan 89 14:05:08 GMT
References: <508@solaris.UUCP>
Organization: University of Maine System
Lines: 20
TO: NETNEWS@MAINE

I can't quite tell where you are located, but if it is inside the USA then your
mail administrator should know that by reading your mail as it comes and goes
he is (unless he can reasonably cite system security, which I doubt) breaking
the law. There is a law in this country (PL99-508, "The Electronic
Communications Privacy Act of 1986") that specifically prohibits intercepting
and reading of electronic mail and other forms of electronic communication.
You could probably sue him and win on the grounds of privacy invasion.

Secondly, a good simple encryption scheme is ROT-13, but it does not require
a key, so your administrator could also decrypt your stuff, assuming he reads
this and wants to continue his illegal activity. Just rotate each alphabetic
letter through the alphabet 13 positions. Thus, 'A' becomes 'N' and 'Z' becomes
'M', etc. To reverse it, simply do the same rotation again and things go back
to their previous state.

Hope this helps you.

Michael Johnson                           "We are the Priests of the Temples
University of Maine System                 of Syrinx. Our great computers fill
Computing and Data Processing Services     the hallowed halls." - Neil Peart