[liberationtech] The security and ethics of mapping in repressive environments

[Jonah Silas Sheridan]

I'm no Jacob, nor do I play one on TV (or even on YouTube!)... But as a
former NPO IT guy mayhaps I can point you in the right direction.

AFAIK, if you want to send encrypted mail using GMail, your best (read
cheapest) bet is to connect to Gmail using Thunderbird, and use GPG and
TBird's enigmail plugin. I have set this up numerous times, and although
not trivial it is not massively difficult either. Using OSS, it can be
installed on most any major OS including OSX, Windows and *nix. This is
adequate for an individual, but not great if you want to set up email
encryption for a large network.

You can find Enigmail downloads and a Quick Start guide here:
http://enigmail.mozdev.or/home/index.php.html

You can also opt for the PGP alternative. It is a more robust suite of
tools, but proprietary so you have to buy them from Symantec. It can
work on many email clients, and only on Windows or OSX. It has some
enterprise type key management features if deploying in a whole
office/department/etc.

See more here: http://www.symantec.com/business/desktop-email

Once upon a time there was a quest to build a Firefox plugin
(FireGPG:http://getfiregpg.org/) that would operate similarly to
Enigmail for using Gmail on the web, but it has been discontinued. Until
someone picks that up, or more likely unless Google decides to support
and develop it, that is a non-option.

For web-based Gmail, your best bet is to type your message offline,
encrypt and copy and paste. PGP has some nice GUI tools for that. GPG
would leave you on the command line to perform the encryption.

I will leave it to another time to discuss security authorities and key
creation. Following the basic instructions is secure enough for most...

That at least can get you started, I hope. I will await Jacob's reply,
wherein he points out the numerous things I misunderstood and/or didn't
know. ;-)

Yours in encryption,

Jonah

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jonah silas sheridan
email:jonahsilas at jonahsilas.net
skype, gchat, twitter:jonahsilas
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