Re: User authentication

At 10:21 AM 5/10/95, Martin Hamilton wrote:
>Rick Troth writes:
>
>| I don't see any way to do  "real authentication"  without
>| using public key electronic signatures,  and I question whether or not
>| we need something that strong to eliminate news and mail forgery.
>
>I suspect SMTP and NNTP are still an authentication free zone for the vast
>majority of Internet users.  > Best shot is to have a browser that can be
>configured to refuse to send messages unless _it_ is happy > with your
>credentials ?

I'm confused. Are you advocating a central registry of all browser owners,
where the browser checks that registry, asks me to match the password, and
then lets me send mail?  I think a public key system would be simpler,
safer and more private.

Kee Hinckley      Utopia Inc. - Cyberspace Architects    617/721-6100
nazgul@utopia.com                               http://www.utopia.com/

I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.

Received on Sunday, 28 May 1995 16:24:55 UTC