If you think about emails as if they're anything but the digital equivalent of a postcard--that is to say, they provide zero confidentiality--then someone lied to you and I'm sorry you had to find out from a furry blog that sometimes talks about applied cryptography. CMYKat At the end of 2025, at the 39th Chaos…

Soatok is a blog or publication authored by Soatok Dhole, a security researcher and privacy advocate. Readers can explore articles covering topics such as cryptography, privacy-enhancing technologies, and digital rights. Additionally, they can learn about cybersecurity threats, encryption protocols, and strategies for protecting online privacy.

Dhole Moments

Email provides zero confidentiality by design, functioning like digital postcards rather than sealed envelopes. Recent vulnerabilities in PGP software (gpg.fail) highlight ongoing problems, but the fundamental issues run deeper: encrypted email solutions fail due to user error (accidental plaintext replies), metadata leakage (subject lines, timestamps, recipients), and DKIM signatures that provide non-repudiation. Despite technical proposals like SMIMP, email cannot be fixed because the oligopoly controlling email infrastructure and governments have no incentive to change. The recommendation is to abandon email encryption entirely and use purpose-built encrypted messaging tools like Signal instead.

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