[3680] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Is a serial cable as good as thin air?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Russell Nelson)
Tue Dec 1 16:11:35 1998
Date: 1 Dec 1998 17:31:18 -0000
From: Russell Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <v03130302b289166b63d0@[24.128.119.92]>
Arnold G. Reinhold writes:
> I am uncomfortable with the tone of this thread. There is nowhere near
> enough information provided in Mr. Georgoudis' posting to conclude that
> hisbank's existing floppy disk transfer scheme is secure, much less render
> an opinion on the impact of a serial connection.
> >: all). Here is the question: Is this as good as thin air?
He didn't ask if it was secure. He only wanted to know if a serial
connection could be made as secure as a floppy disk transfer. I
contend that an xmodem transfer of the file is as secure as a floppy
disk transfer. The truly paranoid would insert a PIC chip which
enforces that only the xmodem protocol could transit the wire, and
then in only one direction.
Sure, the floppy disk transfer could be insecure, but as you say, he
neither gave us enough information, nor asked if we felt it was secure.
--
-russ nelson <rn-sig@crynwr.com> http://crynwr.com/~nelson
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