[43447] in Cypherpunks
Re: Hardware-random-bits interface
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Wed Nov 15 20:17:26 1995
To: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 15 Nov 1995 10:54:22 PST."
<accf76ef010210049425@[205.199.118.202]>
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 14:05:19 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Timothy C. May writes:
> But if you "shield the bejeebers out of it," then all the radio receiver
> generates is whatever signal manages to sneak through--which, ironically,
> would make it _easier_ for an outside attacker to drive--and some amount of
> internal receiver/amplifier noise, such as the Johnson noise talked about
> here. (Every receiver has an "equivalent noise temperature," recall.)
>
> And if one is left with only internal noise, why not simply use a nice
> clean source like a Zener diode?
Quite solidly agreed. Internal noise beats external noise, and there
is no point in using a radio receiver when what you want is internal
noise.
.pm
