PGP: looking for advice on settings

[Andrew Webber]

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On Wed, 22 Mar 2000 19:58:01 -0400 (AST), Trevor Smith wrote:

>On Wed, 22 Mar 2000 18:53:34 -0500, Andrew Webber wrote:
>
>>I was wondering about the file naming, too.  Would it make sense to
>>use something other than the default (and obvious) pubring.pkr,
>>secring.skr, and randseed.rnd?  Or would some application(s) expect
>>those names?
>
>I'm not sure about this. I wouldn't mess with the file names though,
>unless you have a really good reason to.

The only reason I thought, was that using the default names, even
in a non-default directory (I moved them) would make it relatively
easy for someone with access (electronic or physical) to do a find
on my HD and scoop the files based on their names.  Then work with
them at their leisure.

Not that I think this will happen, but why go halfway?  If it would
work, I'd put empty files back into C:\WINDOWS with the default
names, then rename the actual files a.a b.b and c.c or something. 
But only if it will work.

And while I don't think anyone would do this to break my
encryption, I would look pretty foolish, and be the subject of some
razzing, if someone copied+deleted my secring.skr from my PC in the
two minutes I spend getting a bottle of Diet Coke, and posted it on
a corporate intranet -- not to break the encryption but to make a
joke.

(Kind of like hackers defacing a spy organization's website.  It
was probably a conscious decision not to invest in making the
opening page secure since it might have no sensitive info, but it's
embarassing when it gets in the news.).

That's my thought on the subject.  I'm sure I'll become more
rational once I get over the initial enthusiasm for encryption.

Thanks!


andrew
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