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List:       openoffice-discuss
Subject:    Re: [discuss] Feature idea for file authentication.
From:       Marco Fioretti <mfioretti () mclink ! it>
Date:       2004-09-09 7:40:03
Message-ID: 1.0.2.200409090939.44243 () mclink ! it
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> We could envision adding some file integrity and authentication
> functionality into OOo.
> 
> Consider the scenario:
> 
> Albert and Beth are business partners that exchange important 
> files. The content of the files isn't secret.But they need
> to be sure that their nemesis Corey isn't changing critical
> data in them.
[...]
> What do you guys think?

I need some time to understand exactly the detail of your proposal.
Te first thing I thought, however, is the political/marketing/PR
side (sorry, I can't find a better term).

What if Corey is your government? In the telecom world, you cannot
sell one transistor that doesn't allow wiretapping, ie call intercept
by the police when they get a court authorization. It's a law in
practically all countries. The US version of it is called CALEA
(it applies to phone companies, of course).

What I'm wondering is if saying "OO.o makes soooooo easy to encrypt
files so well that your government can't look into them" isn't a
good way to freeze interest by a public administration.

I AM NOT SAYING THAT IT IS RIGHT FOR A GOVERNMENT to spy everywhere.
Only that when talking SW crypto (cfr the silly US laws on this) you
must be prepared from the start to deal with this.

Oh, and of course it would be such that you could exchange these
encrypted files with other programs, right?

Ciao,
         Marco F.



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