Encryption code to stop
e-mail snoops at KSU
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The Collegian
Kansas State JJ.<body>
(U-WIRE) MANHATTAN, Kan.
— The vast majority of e-mail is seen
only by the sender and the receiver, but
that may not always be the case.
Ken Conrow, interim director of
Computing and Network Services said
“most of the privacy comes from the
fact that there is way too much for any
one to snoop.”
“It is and it is not private.”
Most networks are not secure, so if
people want to plug in, they can, he
said. If someone is deliberately snoop
ing at the network level, he can do so.
Most frequently it is an uninten
tional mistake which results in e-mail
being read by someone other than the
sender or receiver.
“If mail gets misdirected, it goes to
sort of a dead-letter box, so it could be
read by someone else,” Conrow said.
“Sometimes people will send us some
thing as an example of what went
wrong, and they will send the whole
kit and caboodle, including their e-mail
and the error message.”
Conrow said courts can insist any
record of e-mail be supplied to them,
which means e-mail is not private in
the legal sense. If a company system
atically archives all the e-mail, then a
court can support a request for e-mail.
At K-State, backups are made on a
daily basis, but not with the purpose
of archiving e-mail.
If mail gets
misdirected, it goes
to sort of a
dead-letter box, so it
could be read by
someone else.”
Ken Conrow
interim director of Computing and
Network Services
“We are not organized to back up
e-mail, and it would be a real job for
anyone to pick out any e-mail,”
Conrow said.
One way to protect e-mail is with
Pretty Good Privacy. This is an encryp
tion key that can be used to ensure a
greater level of privacy. If a e-mail us
ers want to, they can download PGP
from an Internet site, said Ralph
Wasmer, consulting manager for CNS.
Senders can tell people they mail
what their PGP key is. The PGP key
encrypts your messages, Conrow said.
There are hundreds of sites for PGP
through Netscape, and a search on
America Online revealed 256 entries
for PGP, he said. Wasner recom
mended the MIT site as the official one.
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