[548] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: John Kelsey's post re Protocols Workshop
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Toto)
Tue Apr 15 15:39:28 1997
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 12:59:55 -0600
From: Toto <toto@sk.sympatico.ca>
Reply-To: toto@sk.sympatico.ca
To: Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>
CC: Hal Finney <hal@rain.org>, cryptography@c2.net
Adam Shostack wrote:
> With CAs
> certifiying such a questionable concept as identity, they're bound to
> be caught up in the fraud game. I believe they have less reason to
> check than credit card companies.
>
> This is one reason I feel role based certificates issued
> locally are the only useful type of cert for the future.
With the top-down certification scheme, you only have to beat
the guy at the top (or someone higher on the pyramid than the
defraudee).
The ridiculous scenario arises where I claim that I went to
high-school with Adam Shostack and was best man at Hal Finney's
wedding, and 'their' direct certification of these facts means
little or nothing. Instead, some CA whose data-entry clerk I
may be having an affair with, and who knows neither Adam, Hal,
or I, is the 'Trusted Authority' (<-- typed with a tone of
great reverence).
Webs of trust will undoubtably arise on their own, according
to people's needs, despite attempts of government and corporations
to direct them all into their own pocketbook or back pocket.
The Bob Dole Visa ad, where he has to show ID to cash a check
during an affair to honor him in his own hometown, is humorous
because it reflects the insanity of the way 'Authority' has
perverted the web of trust that naturally arises as a result
of daily living and our interconnections in life.
In my community, the word of a corporate bank president in
a big city a thousand miles to the east that someone's ID
says they are John Smith means less than the local branch
manager certifying that he's golfed with John Smith twice
a week for a decade.
I suspect that after receiving confirmation of a major deal
in the business world, complete with the blessed-from-on-high
receipt of genuinely certified, government approved, written
in stone Certified Key, that one of the individuals involved
will pick up the phone and call the other, talk about their
last golf game, confirm the information, and set a tee-time
for next Tuesday.
--
Toto
"The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre"
http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html
