On Dec 16, 16:26, Piet Beertema wrote:
Subject: Re: Fw: Re: DANTE CERT Service
Are you kidding? Involving police/government might well become counterproductive, since their ideas about (computer) security are often a bit strange, to put it mildly. A clear case is the proposal recently by the Dutch government for making encryption effectively illegal; needless to say that this led to a storm of protest and eventually to the withdrawal of the proposal; and to the even more rapid spreading of PGP....
Sigh. Here in France, encryption devices (including software) are considered as "armes de guerre" -- weapons of war. It is a bit difficult to imagine a division of soldiers invading any country carrying encrypt(1) on diskettes, but nonetheless the requirements for possessing and using encryption mechanisms are the same as for a 7.62mm rifle. (It's also difficult to imagine an army being immobilized because their bicycles were confiscated, but that's another story ;-) War, and the mentality that comes with it, is often opposed to reason. Anyway, let's *not* involve the "authorities" in the CERT -- they are often reactionary. -Philip