[ale] Seeing if there's any interest

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2010-10-08 at 20:23 -0400, Paul Cartwright wrote: 
> On Fri October 8 2010, Jeremy T. Bouse wrote:
> > Paul, It is a smartcard designed to hold PGP/GPG keys. Typically you
> > would place your subkeys that you use for daily use on there and keep
> > your primary key on other media you could backup. You can actually
> > generate the key on the card so there is no way to get the key off of it
> > for backup purposes or you can copy an existing PGP/GPG key on to the card.

> Is that all it would be good for is carrying your gpg key around? as in for a 
> signing party? Mine is on my laptop, and I occaissionally use it to sign 
> email, and encrypt/decrypt files..

No.  The crypto engine is actually on the card.  It will perform the RSA
decrypt or signing without the private key every leaving the card.
Hence, the private key can not be stolen without actually physically
stealing the card (and then they need the PIN - the card will lock after
3 failed attempts (adjustable)).  The private key can be loaded onto the
card or generated on the card but it can not be copied off the card.
This is NOT a memory card and it is NOT just for carrying the private
key around.

I have an Axalto smart USB key that does the same thing.  At the time, I
was able to purchase these for about $34.00 USD but that was some time
ago.

The USB keys on the Kernel Concepts site are $49.00 Euro and the current
exchange rate looks to be right around 1 Euro = 1.39 USD.  That makes
the USB key approx 68.25 USD.  The 13.90 Euro makes it about 19.35 USD
for the cards in quantity (slightly more if you get the ones that have
the die cut SIM knockout).  The 16.40 Euro makes for about 22.83 USD.
And you need either a full sized smart card reader for the cards (or a
SIM to USB adapter for the ones which the punch out).  Seems a bit
pricey to me.

I would much rather have the USB keys and their price seems way out of
line on those (and no quantity discounts I can see).

Just my 0.02 Euro.

Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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