[448] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Analysis of proposed UK ban on use of non-escrowed crypto.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ben Laurie)
Tue Apr 1 21:05:54 1997
To: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 09:19:04 +0000 (GMT)
From: Ben Laurie <ben@gonzo.ben.algroup.co.uk>
Cc: aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, cryptography@c2.net,
trei@process.com, ttp.comments@ciid.dti.gov.uk, rja14@cl.cam.ac.uk
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.95.970323213051.28155B-100000@viper.law.miami.edu> from "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" at Mar 23, 97 09:32:39 pm
Reply-To: ben@algroup.co.uk
Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:
>
> On Sun, 23 Mar 1997, Ben Laurie wrote:
>
> > Oh yes, the other two important points to note are:
> >
> > 1. Confusion of TTPs and CAs. Although a TTP can, of course, perform the
> > function of a CA, a CA can do the job just as well. The need for CAs does not
> > justify TTPs. The document makes no attempt to make this clear.
>
> Can you explain further what you mean here please? I thought that a CA
> was a species of TTP. I'm fairly sure that is how it's generally used.
> Is there some other general usage?
The critical difference is that a CA signs public keys (and may also provide
directory services) but a TTP stores private keys. It may be that in general
a TTP can mean "anyone who does any kind of key signing that people are
supposed to trust", but in the context of GAK it means the entity that holds
the keys in escrow.
Cheers,
Ben.
--
Ben Laurie Phone: +44 (181) 994 6435 Email: ben@algroup.co.uk
Freelance Consultant and Fax: +44 (181) 994 6472
Technical Director URL: http://www.algroup.co.uk/Apache-SSL
A.L. Digital Ltd, Apache Group member (http://www.apache.org)
London, England. Apache-SSL author
