[13070] in Cypherpunks
Re: Keyserver service outage
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Schirado)
Thu May 5 00:46:05 1994
From: schirado@lab.cc.wmich.edu (Schirado)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 00:42:34 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: schirado@lab.cc.wmich.edu
>During the coming week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will
>begin formally distributing PGP 2.5, a new version of PGP that is
>based on the RSAREF 2.0 cryptographic toolkit, under license from RSA
>Data Security, Inc., dated March 16, 1994. When that distribution
>becomes available, the keyserver will return running PGP 2.5. At that
>time, the keyserver will no longer accept keys that are identified as
>having been created by versions of PGP lower than 2.4. (PGP 2.4 is
>Viacrypt PGP.)
Questions:
1) What involvement, if any, does Phil Zimmermann have in the creation
of this "new version of PGP"?
2) Will "PGP 2.5" continue to be freeware; i.e., has RSA changed its
stance on licensing?
3) If the answer to 2 is "yes", has the strength of the encryption
been compromised in any fashion?
4) Isn't this some sort of transparent "back door" grab by some
unknown person(s) as a method of encouraging people to switch by
fostering the belief that versions of PGP lower than 2.4 are somehow
illegal or otherwise illegitimate?
(The last is only semi-sarcastic.)
Basically, I think I speak for a hefty chunk of list subscribers when
I say:
I want to know who's behind this.
