5.0 Contact Authorisation (All men are created equal)

A contact request has only two possible outcomes. Either the request is accepted, in which case contact information is exchanged between the two clients, or the request is denied, in which case no information exchange takes place. The information exchanged between the two clients enables each to automatically create an address book entry for the other.

This information is then maintained for the life of that entry, any changes in regular email, or postal address details are automatically propagated though out the entire network. In addition to the contact information, the server selects a unique password from the database, and sends this to each client. From that point on, every messages exchanged between the two clients is encrypted using the new password.


6.0 Sending/Receiving Mail (The games afoot)

Upon completion of the registration process, both clients now have sufficient information to begin exchanging mail. All mail messages shared the shame common structure. That is, a header containing key transit information, and a body contain the text of the message, and any attachments. Each of these sections is encrypted separately using a different password. The header is encrypted using the client/server password (see section 3.0), and the body is encrypted using the client/client password (see section 5.0).

All mail is first sent the server, where the header is decrypted, and the message redirected to its destination. It is important to remember that the server does NOT keep a record of the client/client passwords, and so is unable to decrypt the message body. This two tiered approach to mail delivery is no accident, but a deliberate strategy to conceal the source, and destination of all 1on1mail. Consider the scenario where a third party is eavesdropping upon the network connection betwixt client and server. Without the client/server password, it is impossible to identify the destination of any mail message, and conversely it is equally impossible to identify the source a particular message. In the light of recent legislation, it has become clear that the fact that two individuals are corresponding, is sufficient ground to warrant and investigation by federal authorities, regardless of whether or not the context of the correspondence is known. In this situation, the strength of 1on1Lite is I think obvious.

7.0 A Question of Trust

It is just possible that the federal authorities do not like the idea of American citizens sending secure email to one another. Up till now the constitution has prevented them from taking any action to make secure mail insecure. One day however, they might feel it necessary to serve us with an injunction to provide them with the private keys of all members. (There are precedents) We want our answer in that event to be simple, we don't have them� We do not wish to be obliged to compromise our users if future federal legislation takes that path.

8.0 Conclusion(On the shoulders of giants)

We believe that 1on1Lite offers a truly unique email experience, providing you with a level of security and easy of use over and above that of any other product. We could not have put this product together without the help of some exceptionally talented people, too numerous to mention here. I would like however, to extend my thanks to my Bruce Schneier, without whom may of the encryption technologies would not exist. Although he was not directly involved in the production of 1on1Lite, his excellent book "Applied Cryptography" provided the catalyst for the whole product.



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