[ih] IETF relevance (was Memories of Flag Day?)

[Dave Crocker]

On 9/5/2023 9:36 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> My email program claims to have the ability to handle encrypted email, 
> cryptographically verified signatures, certificates, and such, and 
> there are lots of RFCs/Standards describing mechanisms for secure 
> email.   I don't know why none of my legal, medical, or financial 
> providers chose to use such "on the shelf" technologies.

Other than for transit-level email authentication crypto -- working at 
domain name level -- email-based encryption has been unable to scale.  
So, yes, your software includes those functions, but no, they are not 
deemed viable for serious communications at scale.

Hence some environments choose messaging functions that they can operate 
solely under their control.  (They rely on https for that 'at scale' 
part of crypto.)

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
mast:@dcrocker at mastodon.social