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Introduction

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

—Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article twelve

Before we look at how to use Openswan to secure and protect your communications, we will first go over a little of the history of cryptography, and the reasons why we are now able to discuss and use a technology that was until recently considered a vital military secret. Three important events made this possible: the creation of the Internet, the (re)invention of public key cryptography, and the creation of free-to-use software.

Another important issue we will cover in this chapter is the legal side of using Openswan. While the creators of Openswan grant everyone the right to use the product, some governments have additional laws governing cryptography. Before you use, give, or sell Openswan, you should make sure it is legal for you to do so. Though the authors are no lawyer, we hope this chapter will provide enough information for you to properly consider this aspect.

The Need for Cryptography

The history of cryptography and therefore the history of IPsec and Openswan involve some level of politics.

Privacy

Today, a lot of what we do is logged somewhere. Our cellphone companies keep a database of where we have been and whom we talked to. Some countries, not only totalitarian regimes or theocracies, but Western democracies as well, are implementing data retention laws to force ISPs to store a copy of everything their customers do for anything from a number of years to indefinitely. Companies gather massive amounts of data using discount cards and RFIDs, turning citizens into statistical consumers. Certain well-known companies have been known to employ the tactics of spyware and viruses, deliberately infecting customers' PCs with rootkits to monitor their activity, and even control what they can do with their own computers, all in the name of anti-piracy.