Georg sez, “End to end cryptography is one of the few truly effective ways in which privacy and security can be protected. GnuPG is the central tool for this, recommended and used by security icons such as Bruce Schneier. While the software itself is easier to use than most people realize, key exchange is cumbersome. The authors of GnuPG have developed a concept that will solve this issue: STEED. So this is a call to action for tomorrow’s Software Freedom Day. Help spread the word so one of the biggest obstacles to pervasive end to end cryptography will be solved for good. Let the STEED run!”
So when Bruce Schneier is listing GnuPG as the first of several applications he is using and recommending to stay secure, I can’t help but find this rather ironic and rewarding at the same time. Because I know what has been necessary for this crucial piece of software to come so far. Especially Werner Koch, but also Markus Brinkmann are two people all of us are indebted to, even though most people don’t realize it. Excellent software developers, but entrepreneurs with much room for improvement and (I’m sorry, guys) horrible at marketing and fundraising. So they pretty much exploited themselves over many years in order to be able to keep the development going because they knew their work was essential. Over the course of the past 12 years the entire Kolab team and especially individuals such as Bernhard Reiter at Intevation have always done what they could to involve them in development projects and push forward the technology.
And we will continue to do that, both through MyKolab.com and some other development projects we are pushing with Kolab Systems for customers that have an interest in these technologies. But they have a whole lot more in mind than we could make possible immediately, such as dramatically increasing the usability for end-to-end cryptography. The concept they have developed is based on over a decade of working on obstacles to end user adoption. It’s called STEED — Usable End-to-End Encryption and has been available for two years now. I think it’s time to be finalized and implemented.
SFD Call to Action: Let the STEED run!
(Thanks, Georg!)