[Cryptography] Explaining PK to grandma

[Nico Williams]

On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 08:50:16AM -0800, Jon Callas wrote:
> On Nov 26, 2013, at 5:08 AM, Phillip Hallam-Baker <hallam at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think everyone is barking up the wrong tree here.
> > 
> > How do you explain how the car works to gran? [...]
> 
> Agree totally. It has to be so simple as to be invisible, [...]

But users have to understand the risks [inherent in driving a killing
machine such as a car, or sending sensitive data over any one
transport].

I believe users need to know, and be educated if need be, about scams
(e.g., phishing) and how to recognize when they are at risk.  Some
details necessarily bleed through the abstractions ("cars burn gas").

When I tried out the padlock analogy last yesterday, my audience got the
MITM problem mainly when I mentioned relying on 411 as an online
directory.  Finding analogies that make real risks evident to the
uninitiated is important, provided we can find such analogies of course.

Nico
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