As someone who occationally puts together a webpage or two, how do you check for encryptian? Sean ----- Original Message ----- From: "Janina Sajka" <janina@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 12:12 PM Subject: Re: online banking with Bank of America: not quite accessible enough > Hi, Darrell: > > I've already written to Lainey about it. Here's the text of my message > to her where I also included the message from Cheryl: > > > Hi, Lainey: > > Are you able to help me forward the concern described in the attached > email? I'm afraid the issue is sufficiently obscure, technically, to not > make much sense to the first tiers of tech support people. Besides, they > wouldn't be in the position to do anything about it. > > The bottom line here is that they're excluding users based on bad > judgement. They've got their log very wrong, technically speaking, and I > can prove it. > > If you read the message this woman is getting--which I also get, it > seems very justified--the bank wants you to connect using secure, > encrypted communications channels so that your information can't be > stolen by someone who's eavsdropping. Unfortunately, the way they're > actually determining whether or not the connection is encrypted isn't > accurate and yields false results, as in this instance. Technically > speaking, they're not actually testing for encryption, they're inferring > based on what browser the user is using. My advice to this individual > will be to simply lie--something that one can do with these browsers and > masquerade as Netscape or IE. But, that's not a proper solution. > > The truth is that looking at what browser the person is using isn't > going to really tell you whether or not they're practicing safe > computing. As it happens, the old, and now sometimes denigrated text > browser lynx, actually provides twice the level of security available in > Netscape and Internet Explorer. Lynx SSL encryption, to be technical > about it, provides 192-bit encryption, compared to Netscape and IE's > 128-bit. In encryption, the higher this number is, the stronger the > encryption is. > > Frankly, this isn't much different than denying service to someone > because they wear the wrong clothes. While the users of these browsers > may be a minority, they are a growing minority because of the growing > popularity of Linux even among users who are blind. > > The fix is also not difficult or expensive for B of A to implement. But, > it's a decision that obviously needs to be made at a high enough level > inside their IT department. > > B of A has been doing an outstanding job of making their extensive on > line services accessible. Every few months I go poke around on their web > pages and I'm always gratified to see more and more services being made > available accessibly. This is making B of A very attractive to potential > customers nationwide. It would be a shame to exclude some of them for > bogus reasons. > > Anything you can do would be much appreciated. > > -- > > Janina Sajka > Email: janina at rednote.net > Phone: +1 (202) 408-8175 > > Director, Technology Research and Development > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) > http://www.afb.org > > Chair, Accessibility Work Group > Free Standards Group > http://a11y.org > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
