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Old 18th November 2008
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phoenix phoenix is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
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Exactly. So, if your message is signed and encrypted, why would you need POP-over-SSL or IMAP-over-SSL?

POPS (POP3S?) and IMAPS never made sense to me, as a message-transfer protocol. Unless the entire communications channel, from end-point to end-point, is encrypted, then there is very little value in encrypting the final leg of a message's journey.

On groupware systems where messages tend to remain within the system (internal messages), then secure server-client connections like IMAPS make sense. But for general "sending over the Internet" setups? Not really. At least not in my mind.

That's like driving a tank from home to work, then jumping on a 10-speed bike to travel from work to the mall, then jumping on a bus to travel from the mall to the grocery store, then hitch-hiking from the grocery store back to work, then jumping back in the tank to drive home. Sure, the home-to-work leg of the trip is super-secure, but what about the rest of the journey??
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