[Discuss] Running a mail server, or not

[dsr at randomstring.org (Dan Ritter)]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 03:40:02PM -0400, Richard Pieri wrote:
> On 6/25/2018 12:07 PM, Rich Braun wrote:
> > Not mine, at least not in clear-text. Backbone providers only see
> > encrypted streams between my email server and my service providers'
> > systems located in France and Canada. I'm not aware of any government
> 
> What kind of encryption is used on the backbone connections between your
> providers in France, Canada and mine in the US?
> 
> Answer: none. There's clear text SMTP in there somewhere and that
> somewhere can be used to eavesdrop.
> 

I was talking to someone recently who was advocating encrypting
the fiber connections across oceans, in order to guard against
mid-sea taps. His argument was that people couldn't be trusted
to encrypt their own data in transit.

Mine was mostly that people who care about these things do have
decent encryption. What I should have said is that it's fine
with me if you want to encrypt your fiber, but it's essentially
useless because you're going to decrypt it at the other end,
and the state actor who is interested is going to put their taps
there, not in the middle of the ocean.

-dsr-