Encryption

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is seeking developers for his file sharing service Mega, which he has revealed is also working on encrypted email and IM.

In a live chat hosted on the New Zealand Herald website, the controversial entrepreneur said the key to making encryption a global success was ease of use.

Here in the Ars science section, we cover a lot of interesting research that may eventually lead to the sort of technology discussed in other areas of the site. In many cases, that sort of deployment will be years away (assuming it ever happens). But in a couple of fields, the rapid pace of proof-of-principle demonstrations hints that commercialization isn't too far beyond the horizon.

It seems like these days I can't eat breakfast without reading about some new encryption app that will (supposedly) revolutionize our communications — while making tyrannical regimes fall like cheap confetti.

This is exciting stuff, and I want to believe. After all, I've spent a lot of my professional life working on crypto, and it's nice to imagine that people are actually going to start using it. At the same time, I worry that too much hype can be a bad thing — and could even get people killed.