I am not sure any level of security would make me feel good about
passing
my emails through a 'peering .. core' of SMTP relays.
However, if we do go in this direction, I plan on firing up my old copies of BinkleyTerm. FIDO and NetMail may be a good place to start :)
Back in the day, there were users of Fido technology networks who were concerned with email privacy. They applied a technology called PGP to secure the contents of their messages. Interestingly enough, even though the open Internet email system doesn't normally relay email through other people's servers, many people still use PGP and its descendants to secure their email content. Could it be that some people don't trust routers to deliver their port 25 packets to the destination without diverting a copy to prying eyes? Surely people would never configure route maps to do such a thing? And let's not even begin to discuss the ways in which widespread use of crypto technology in email systems could allow for things like non-repudiable signatures. And let's not even look at a widespread email alternative that is in use on the Internet today and which is slowly gathering features that make it look more and more like email version two. Imagine what will happen when IM networks take the same step that email networks took in the early 90's and allow for general interconnection. --Michael Dillon