[OT] Re: [Ti] Re: New iMac models... [Faxing]

[Tarik Bilgin]

Dennis Fazio wrote:

> I always find it humorous that some institutions will only accept a 
> faxed document, which can be easily forged with scissors and Elmer's 
> glue, and not an emailed PDF with JPEG signature pasted in. But logic 
> and reason don't always rule in business and government regulations.

There is one advantage with a fax. It's a takes more effort to spoof 
(and therefore impersonate)  a number using the telephone system than 
with STMP email. (i.e at the very least the phone company record the 
transaction, and the phone number of sender appears on the incoming fax 
receipt) So there is a level of repudiation. Though I am aware of people 
sending faxes over TCP/IP using "fax gateways". This sounds like it 
would destroy that advantage.

But overall I agree. The reason for preferring fax over email seems less 
than logical.

I have clients who work in the banking/trading sector. All their 
contractual communications are still done via TELEX, would you believe? 
(Of course this makes sense from an audit/security perspective). I 
wonder what it would take to get them all on to PGP mail or something of 
that sort. A global PKI?

P.S. Apologies this is going massively off-topic. Marked it as 
such...but I'm interested in the discussion so I will post :P
--
Tarik