SXSW 2011: Cryptography, Technology, Privacy: Philip Zimmermann, Inventor of PGP
Presented By
Phil Zimmermann
Zfone
Sorry for the lack of formatting and the random nature of the notes. Just trying to get down the things he is saying.
When PGP was first founded, it was to protect against governments. Now, organized crime is becoming the new threat model. Spam, botnets, phishing scams, etc are the new threats to the average internet user. The most popular target for identity theft is children because they don’t do much with their identity.Most crimes are known about very quickly, but identity theft can take much longer, especially in the case of children. The crime itself depends on you not being aware of the situation. The Pentagon spends lots of money on situation awareness, which are systems that help know what is going on on a battlefield. Situational awareness is something we should have on our side when our identity is at stake. The criminals are banking on our lack of situational awareness. We focus a little too much on digital signatures, but those can be spoofed. We need to step away from our computer screens a little and live in the analog world.