Re: encrypting received faxes before emailing

Zitat von John Hudak <[email protected]>:

> Thank you for the suggestion.  I am curious though, could you please tell
> me why 256-bit AES encoded file which is the cypher I plan on using,  is
> "about as secure as putting a padlock through the zip sliders of a tent"?

Not sure. Maybe this comment applies only to the weak Zip 2.0 (Legacy)  
encryption.

> having just read info about gnupg, I see it is a hybrid encryption
> program...not clear what that buys me....

It depends on what you want to achieve with encryption and how you  
intend to use your fax server.

The main advantage of GnuPG is the use of public-key cryptography for  
secure key exchange.

With ZIP file encryption the fax server and the recipient need to  
share the password used both for encryption and decryption. This is  
very sensitive information, which makes key management very difficult.  
(How can a recipient change a compromized password?) Using the same  
password for more than recipient would be a bad idea.

With GnuPG the fax server uses the recipient's public key for  
encryption, the recipient uses his private key for decryption. The  
public key does not have to be kept secret, it is public. It cannot be  
used for decryption. So it is easy to replace the public key.
GnuPG supports key exchange using key servers. The fax server can  
retrieve the public key for a recipient's e-mail address from a key  
server. The recipient can simply upload his public key to this key  
server.
You could also implement things like key signing if needed, to make  
sure a public key really belongs to the recipient.
GnuPG could also be used to sign the messages. With this a recipient  
can verify that the message has really been sent by the fax server as  
long as the fax server's private key is kept safe.

Bodo


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