[ NNSquad ] Unfortunate move by Google: Rejecting self-signed certificates

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

Unfortunate move by Google: Rejecting self-signed certificates

Gmail Drops Support for Connecting To Pop3 Servers With Self-Signed Certs

http://j.mp/TWO2BY  (Slashdot)

     "In a move not communicated to its users before hand, Google's Gmail
      servers were reconfigured to not connect to remote pop3 servers that
      have self-signed certificates, leaving folks with unencrypted
      connections, or no service when getting email from other services. Not
      good for the small folks. One suggestion was to allow placing the
      public keys on Google's side in the user configuration. That would be
      a heck of a lot better than just dropping users into never never
      land."  Apparently, "valid" now means "paid someone Google approves to
      sign the certificate." It's not like commercial CAs have the best
      security track record either.

 - - -

While this doesn't affect me directly, I am still quite disappointed
by this action.  Not only should this change have been communicated
*in advance*, but it is unnecessary as well. Please see my blog
posting "Toward Pervasive Internet Encryption: Unshackling the
Self-Signed Certificate": http://bit.ly/diFxdm

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren 
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
 - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org 
 - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
 - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
 - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren 
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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