Securing the end-points

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Greetings!
I was wondering if in addition to all the work and discussion regarding
crypto which generally centres around the transmission path information takes
traveling from end-point to end-point, there is any work being done to secure
the end-points themselves (I.e. files on your PC etc.)

In my view the end-points present the most vulnerability in the overall
message path from person to person. It is at these points that the
message/information exists as cleartext even if for a short period of time.
While of course it is possible to PGP encode your files is this a practical
way to go about securing your system? I am aware or RSA secure but is that
all there is out there?

Thanks in advance

Glen McBride
Bay Networks ASIA-PAC customer service 
Australia

Views are my own and do not represent those of my employer

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On 18 Dec 1995, Glen McBride wrote:
 
> Greetings!
> I was wondering if in addition to all the work and discussion regarding
> crypto which generally centres around the transmission path information takes
> traveling from end-point to end-point, there is any work being done to secure
> the end-points themselves (I.e. files on your PC etc.)
> 
> In my view the end-points present the most vulnerability in the overall
> message path from person to person. It is at these points that the
> message/information exists as cleartext even if for a short period of time.
> While of course it is possible to PGP encode your files is this a practical
> way to go about securing your system? I am aware or RSA secure but is that
> all there is out there?
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Glen McBride
> Bay Networks ASIA-PAC customer service
> Australia
> 

The best way to secure the endpoints of communication is to use a sector level
encryption TSR like SecureDrive.  In a program like this, when a file is
opened for reading or writing, the TSR automatically en/decrypts the data
before it is processed by the calling application.  Aside from a slightly
slower disk access rate, a program like this is not inconvenient to use at all.
SecureDrive is available at ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/cypherpunks/
filesystems/secdr13c.zip.


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finger markm@voicenet.com for Public Key http://www.voicenet.com/~markm/
Key-ID: 0xF9B22BA5 Fingerprint: bd24d08e3cbb53472054fa56002258d5
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b+++ DI+ D++ G+++ e! h* r! y?
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