30 Chapter 2
Trust in OpenPGP
Like so many other words in the security field, trust has
been twisted to mean almost anything the speaker desires.
(The OpenPGP standard actually goes out of its way to avoid
defining the word trust!) One critical portion of the trust sys-
tem is the Web of Trust, which uses a narrow definition of trust
and tries to ensure only that a person is who he claims he is.
Simply being a part of the Web of Trust does not imply that
a person is trustworthy! I know people whom I know darn well
that I cannot trust with my wallet or my pet rats, but I would
happily sign their PGP keys and help them prove their identity
to others. You can receive an OpenPGP-signed email contain-
ing a fraudulent offer to sell the Brooklyn Bridge ...