emails snowden and poitras

[Rejo Zenger]

Hi,

At <http://www.wired.com/2014/10/snowdens-first-emails-to-poitras/> 
there are some snippets of the e-mails Snowden sent to Poitras as an 
introduction. One of those e-mails says:

  "I would like to confirm out of email that the keys we exchanged were 
  not intercepted and replaced by your surveillants. Please confirm that 
  no one has ever had a copy of your private key and that it uses a 
  strong passphrase."

Of course, we don't have the full picture, but from the information that 
has been released, this seems to be surprising question: how would you 
be able to confirm that the keys are not replaced by asking to confirm 
that no one has ever had a copy of the private key? If they keys have 
been obtained by the adversary, the answer may be altered or not. In any 
case, the answer doesn't prove anything.

Of course, if Poitras would answer that her private key is in the hands 
of some other person, I expect her to have revoked to key anyways. 

So, what's the objective of Snowden, you think?

And yes, I am aware that Snowden says these steps are not bullet proof. 


-- 
Rejo Zenger
E rejo at zenger.nl | P +31(0)639642738 | W https://rejo.zenger.nl  
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