[Cryptography] Explaining PK to grandma

[James A. Donald]

On 2013-11-27 03:17, Nico Williams wrote:
> 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.

People are still astonished that the from field is easily forgeable.  My 
sister is an intelligent woman, and still tends to trust the  from 
field, even though I showed her how I could easily send her emails with 
any from field that I liked.

We know in principle how implement email such that the from field works, 
at least to the extent that if it appears to come from 
example at example.com, that proves that the sender can receive, or 
intercept, mail sent to example at example.com.

Fixing email so that the from field works is easy.  It should have been 
done.  It would not stop phishing, but would put a big crimp in it.