Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

Re:Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything by pfranz on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @09:00PM (#27125488)

Sending private information is the first thing I think of--from a bunch of aspects. Secure in transit has had a bunch of different, awkward implementations. My biggest concern is sending tax documents and it sitting in someone's archive folder (or sent folder) for years until their account is compromised.

So I often have organizations that send email pointing to their proprietary webmail. The alternative is sneakernet, hard copies, or even faxing.

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Re:Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything by darau1 on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @09:08PM (#27125540)

Unless you physically hand your taxes in, isn't any solution technically vulnerable to being compromised?

Also, wouldn't encryption fix this problem? I don't understand how it might be implemented in the real world, but if you encrypt with your private key, then their public key the message should be safe in transit, and at rest (unless they leave it decrypted on disk)

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Re:Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything by pfranz on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @12:35AM (#27126624)

> Unless you physically hand your taxes in, isn't any solution technically vulnerable to being compromised?

If that's all there is to it, then why do people use other solutions?

> Also, wouldn't encryption fix this problem?

Kind of. The problem is the protocol and lack of consensus prevents this from being feasibly implemented. Personally, I think encryption in transit is a low probability threat for me. I would also like certain data to "expire" or go into "cold storage" after a period of time. Sending it in a side-channel, like Dropbox or Google Drive means I can delete it or revoke access after a period of time but this breaks email.

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