[753] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Full Strength Stronghold 2.0 Released Worldwide
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent Crispin)
Thu May 8 11:52:21 1997
Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 22:59:25 -0700
From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
On Wed, May 07, 1997 at 01:38:53PM -0400, Matt Blaze wrote:
[...]
>
> Anyway, any key recovery mechanism adds so much complexity to the system
> that, at a minimum, alternatives should be carefully explored first.
With all due respect, this is nonsense. Key Recovery has been
implemented and deployed in commercial systems. It's conceptually
obvious, and straightforward to implement. The primary motivation
for consideration of alternatives are political, not technical.
> Indeed,
> I suspect that in most applications these mechanisms reduce security far
> more than they help assure availability.
There is always the question of how much security is enough. Key
recovery systems can be made as secure as necessary.
--
Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html
