[6034] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
The Truth About Encryption (Re: NewsScan Daily, 5 November 1999
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Sat Nov 6 15:43:31 1999
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Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 19:46:33 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, cryptography@c2.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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At 9:32 AM -0700 on 11/5/99, NewsScan wrote:
> THE TRUTH ABOUT ENCRYPTION
> Cambridge University cryptography expert Ross Anderson says governments'
> efforts to keep encryption technology out of the hands of criminals and
> terrorists is misguided: "If I were to hold a three-hour encrypted
> conversation with someone in the Medellin drug cartel, it would be a dead
> giveaway. In routine monitoring, GCHQ (Britain's signals intelligence
> service) would pick up the fact that there was encrypted traffic and would
> instantly mark down my phone as being suspect. Quite possibly the police
> would then send in the burglars to put microphones in all over my house. In
> circumstances like this, encryption does not increase your security. It
> immediately and rapidly decreases it. You are mad to use encryption if you
> are a villain." (New Scientist 6 Nov 99)
> http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19991106/confidenti.html
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
