On 09-Mar-2016, Scott Junner wrote:
Actually, we'll be working through the Email Self Defence course https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/ created by Free Software Foundation.
Thank you to everyone who attended, everyone who helped us prepare
this event, and especially those who helped people new to email
encryption at the workshop.
The Email Self-defense course led us through setting up and
demonstrating the tools. Here are some important next steps:
* Reflect on the security implications.
Defending online communications from unwanted eavesdropping is not
a set-and-forget add-on. It is a brute fact that the issues need to
be understood in order to stay secure. We went some way to that at
the workshop.
The course material URL:https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/ has a
brief section “Use It Well” with major points, and a link to the
“Next Steps” article.
* Use a passphrase.
XKCD 936 URL:https://xkcd.com/936/ “Password Strength” explains
that what makes a passphrase effective is not a short jumble of
arbitrary unmemorable characters, but *length* (a handful of
actual words), and *randomness* (don't choose those words yourself).
No punctuation or garbled text needed.
I am the Debian maintainer for the XKCD Passphrase Generator as the
‘xkcdpass’ package URL:http://packages.debian.org/xkcdpass. You
can also use a site like URL:http://useapassphrase.com/ that is a
useful reference for why to do this, and how to do it yourself if
you choose.
* Store your passphrases securely and conveniently.
Each passphrase you use for each service should be unpredictable,
unique, and different on each service. This means you need a program
to help you track which passphrase gets you into which service. The
same store of your credentials needs to be available and up-to-date
on each device you might need to access those passphrases.
Adam Bolte taught us about URL:https://www.passwordstore.org/
Password Store a while ago. Since then it has grown clients to help
you track the same database of credentials across all your devices.
Now go forth and communicate freely and securely!
--
\ “If we listen only to those who are like us, we will squander |
`\ the great opportunity before us: To live together peacefully in |
_o__) a world of unresolved differences.” —David Weinberger |
Ben Finney