[12131] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Clipper and Aldrich Ames
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Sat May 7 01:32:10 1994
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 10:55:26 -0400
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: mchui@cs.indiana.edu
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Michael Chui's message of Tue, 26 Apr 1994 01:04:10 -0500 <199404260604.AA04077@world.std.com>
>From: Michael Chui <mchui@cs.indiana.edu>
>bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes:
>>This seems like a weird story, was the data encryption technology to
>>be used with Clipper some sort of secret?
>
> Yes. The Skipjack algorithm is classified, making an
>public, independent vetting of its strength and security impossible.
Gosh, this Clipper thing is even dumber than I thought (and I thought
it was pretty dumb.)
I thought someone would have to leak the keys to pretty much trash the
whole thing (a real possibility in my opinion.) Now it seems all one
needs to do to trash it is figure out or reveal the algorithm.
I assume they said that this eventuality was highly unlikely? Har.
These folks need adult supervision.
-Barry Shein
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