[OLPC-devel] GPG and a centralized Contact list

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Mon, 2006-09-04 at 23:47 -0400, Ivan Krstić wrote:

> > With that, the two children will have exchanged contact and encryption
> > information. Now, when either of those children are later on a
> > wireless mesh network without a central server for authentication,
> > they will be able to cryptographically ensure that they are talking to
> > the right person. This also has the side benefit of being able to
> > encrypt/sign communication between any two 'friendly' laptops.
> 
> This is almost exactly my security design for the machines, modulo minor
> details. It's how we'll get the emergent PKI based on KCM that I've been
> mentioning.
> 

Read briefly on KCM based on this email... It wasn't clear to me whether
KCM replaces the "web of trust" inherent and public key encryption. That
is, how do you actually verify that a key is trusted by the group you
are in? Is it necessary for the teacher or students to (in a serious
manner) validate identities and sign keys?

-- John.