改變電腦工業的10大殺手應用(Applications)之一: PGP加密

改變電腦產業的10大殺手應用(Applications)

時至今日, 電腦還是一個非常複雜的東西, 如果沒有應用功能(application), 它不過是個中看不中用的酷玩意兒. 假如沒有這些Applications來驅動電腦的使用, 就不會有這麼多的電腦在我們的工作地點及家中. 所以 Application 可以說是電腦裡的活生生的血液. 殺手級應用 (Killer App)是一個很夯的名詞, 幾乎每一個軟體的發行都期待成為一個Killer App. 事實上, 很少App最後會真正的改變電腦產業的發展. 我們列出以下真正影響深遠的"殺手"

榮譽獎: Minesweeper
榮譽獎: SMS

第十名: Oracle database

第九名: PGP

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) brought encryption to the masses. It enabled people to ensure their privacy quickly and simply. The world's repressive regimes and intelligence agencies hated Zimmermann's guts I'm sure.

The US government spent three years investigating if PGP should be classed as a munition and banned from export. Zimmermann's defence was masterly. He decided to publish the PGP source code in a book, allowing anyone access to it. The program was also freely available on the internet. In the end the government threw up its hands, realising the horse had well and truly bolted.

PGP is still the gold standard of encryption packages and no-one it seems can break it successfully. It has given privacy to us all, privacy that would otherwise have gone long ago.

PGP was a remarkable bit of code. The program allowed average users to encrypt data on a level that even government security systems were hard pressed to match. This was not welcome news to officials, who worried that PGP could be used by paedophiles or terrorists to encrypt data and hide evidence from authorities.

In the end, however, PGP really is a great tool. One has to wonder just how many billions of dollars could have been saved in recent years had certain individuals and organisations opted to use PGP to lock down employee and customer data.

第八名: Apache

第七名: Microsoft Office

第六名: Dr. Solomon's Antivirus Toolkit

第五名: Adobe Photoshop

第四名: SNDMSG

第三名: Lotus 1-2-3

第二名: Quark Xpress

第一名: Mosaic

詳細資料來源: ITNews