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Homepage of Sven Guckes - 2021-06-16

Sven Guckes ist am 2022-02-20 verstorben. Diese Webseite wird in Erinnerung an ihn aufrecht erhalten.

Sven Guckes passed away on 2022-02-20. This website is maintained in his memory.



Contact

Sven Guckes keysigningparty@guckes.net 8000R/0185391B 32CE 5648 6E6D 6D6D 33E5 3A38 EAB9 7F20 0185 391B
get in touch:
   contact information removed

Encrypt your Data!

"why encrypt?" -> "why not?!"
"it's hard!"   -> "it's not."

  "but i got nothing to hide."

then you got nothing to lose. :)

  "i am not an interesting person.. my data is worthless."

maybe you are not yet interesting now.  but some day you might.
and by then all the information about you will be useful -
to someone else.  why give it to them without effort?

besides:
if your system encrypted all the data before sending it away and
all automatically without any effort to you.. would you mind?

when companies (banks) tell you that you *must* use encryption
to secure your data (eg for online banking) then why don't you
use it for everything else (chat, emails, files..) as well?

however, when your government tells you to use *less*
secure cryptography (to encrypt your personal data)
doesn't that make you feel like a second class citizen?

why would a good citizen use something less secure -
while the "bad ones" use whatever they want?  remember:
"If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."

  "but THEY can crack anything, anyway."

no, they can't.  finding your secret key
in a short amount of time is highly unlikely.

besides, cracking the crypto algorithms isn't the goal
as the algorithms are mostly open to everyone, anyway.
it is about finding the keys only.  and
the keys are taken a set of huge numbers.
guessing one of 14million numbers, ie
"winning the lottery" is a much simpler task.

  "installing programs, configurations, and all those commands -
  that's a lot of work. i dont want all that. life should be easy."

well, once you know you definitely need it, it might be too late.
because until then, you have been communicating in the open and
have allowed everyone to copy and read all messages very easily.

  "which system is the most secure?"

the system that you know. so - *know* your system!
learn something about it. read. discuss. test it.

  "i'd rather use a system where i don't have
  to worry about cleaning up all those data.."

well - try TAILS then.  it runs off an USB stick
and when you pull the stick out of the USB port
then it immediately clears the RAM and shuts down.
nothing is saved (no bookmars, no cookies, no whatever)
your PC it will simply forget about everything.  that's
why TAILS is "The Amnesic Incognito Live System".

  "but won't the use of encryption alert the authorities
  even more than sending every message in plain text?"

the authorities will have to scan everything to see your use
of encryption.  and it takes some more effort to distinguish
it from your use of encryption which eg your bank
*requires* from you when using HTTPS in your browser.

but when everyone is using encryption whenever possible
then this becomes normal - and noone stands out.

  "so.. i should encrypt. but why encrypt everything
  rather than only the important messages?"

when every of your encrypted messages contains
the really important information then it tells
your adversaries just that: it *is* important.
it is worthy of attacking and decrypting.

when you encrypt everything then the attackers
might be losing their money, resources, and time
by decrypting something quite unimportant.

  "but.. how do you use that system then?"

well - you can learn about using crypto
by joining a cryptoparty - and just ask. :-)
the folks there will happily show you how
to install, configure, and use encryption.

to encrypt messages to someone, your software needs
the public key (pubkey) of the recipient.  here is mine:

gpg: 8000R/0185391B [2014-03-11]
https://www.guckes.net/pgp/0185391B.asc





Statements

protect privacy! open public data!
protect private data. use public data. "we need transparent governments.. not transparent citizens." "governments which have nothing to hide do not need to be afraid of wikileaks." ;) "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

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Latest change: 2021-06-16