[ale] Interest in OpenPGP Smart Card Group Purchase? [Alternatives]

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Thu, 2011-01-27 at 10:25 -0500, David Tomaschik wrote: 
> [My apologies for the cross-post, but I thought all the audiences addressed
> might be interested in this.]

I don't know how you came along on with this but this had come up on the
ALE list months ago.  I don't know if they ever got an order together or
not.  At the time, I found the Kernel Concepts offerings a little pricey
but I also couldn't track down a decent supplier of Aladdin eToken keys
either, which I had picked up a while back for about half the price.

I have found that CDW now has both the 72K Aladdin eTokenPro SmartCards
(reader required) and 72K Aladdin eTokenPro USB keys for reasonable
prices much closer to what I'm use to seeing.

72K eTokenPro USB key.  $31.99 USD each.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=1767490
http://www.safenet-inc.com/aladdin-content/etoken/devices/pro-usb/

72K eTokenPro smartcard.  $11.99 USD each.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=2109652
http://www.safenet-inc.com/aladdin-content/etoken/devices/pro-smartcard/

I have used the USB keys under Linux and they work like a charm.  These
are actually newer keys than the ones I bought before so I haven't tried
these particular models.  While I have never personally formatted them
for OpenPGP, they are standard PKCS-11 tokens with OpenSC support and I
did run across instructions for doing so.  They do sport 2048bit RSA and
should have no problem storing PGP keys on them up to that key length.

I do see these cards from KernelConcepts will go to 3072 bits.
Interesting but I'm not so sure how worth while it is really is.  2048
bit is plenty for this paranoid sole.  Says they only store up to 3
keypair as well.  That sucks.  They've also got a USB key stick at 49
EU.  That's about $67 USD plus shipping.  I think I'll stick with the
Aladdins.

> I'm looking at buying a couple of OpenPGP smart cards from Kernel Concepts.
> (http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/product_info.php?cPath=1_26&products_id=42)
> For several reasons, I thought I should reach out and see if anyone else has
> interest in these:  Since they are being shipped from Europe, the shipping
> charges are likely to be a bit higher than those on a domestic purchase.
> Additionally, they offer discounts as quantity goes up.  There is a 5%
> paypal fee for outside Germany purchases as well.
> 
> Once I see how much interest there is, if any, I will put together a total
> cost including shipping, paypal fees, etc.  I'm happy to include card
> readers and other items from their shop in the order as well, but I'd prefer
> not to add any particularly large/heavy items (significantly increasing the
> shipping costs for everyone else isn't very fair).  I'm currently planning
> to buy 2 cards + 2 readers myself.  (I'll be buying the ID-000 "SIM" form
> factor cards to use with a small USB card reader.)
> 
> Drop me an email off-list if you have interest in this.

Regards,
Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
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