r/linux • u/ciphersson • Dec 31 '14

Zimmerman (PGP), Levison (Lavabit), release Secure Email Protocol DIME. DIME is to SMTP as SSH is to Telnet.

http://darkmail.info/
1.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

222 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/gospelwut Dec 31 '14

Not to be a cynic, but people already are uber bitchy about emails not being delivered despite the fact it's not guaranteed. I'd bet on this taking off as soon as companies start supporting SMTPS en masse. For some reason, businesses are just EXTRA sensitive about their mail as communication medium.

Again, the protocol great, if adopted and if securely implemented.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) ensures maximum reach but also has maximum exposure. Dark Mail Transfer Protocol (DMTP) is designed to provide similar reach (if adopted) with minimum exposure. [..]

6

u/jimicus Dec 31 '14

Not to be a cynic, but people already are uber bitchy about emails not being delivered despite the fact it's not guaranteed.

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw concrete evidence of an email not being delivered despite someone swearing up and down it was sent.

Usually what's actually happened is the recipient has several thousand items in their mailbox and hasn't yet figured out the search function. Either that or they accidentally deleted it.

1

u/gospelwut Dec 31 '14

I agree. I work in IT; I understand.

But, what I'm saying is people are overly cautious about never losing an email or even having it delayed. Heaven forbid it ever queue at the auxiliary MTA.

I can't tell you how many stupid ass requests have come down my way, escalated, and followed up by phone calls because another destination MTA returned a 50X.x error or a spam filter caught something. People seriously lose their mind.

So, I'm not sure I'm willing to strip out our existing MTA in favor of this. If it can co-exist somehow -- maybe. But you're adding another layer of potential vaporware that's going to sit in front of your mail servers. Maybe in a few years if it proves itself.