[13226] in Cypherpunks
Re: Clipper Key Escrow Details
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (smb@research.att.com)
Fri May 6 09:09:39 1994
From: smb@research.att.com
To: grendel@netaxs.com (Michael Brandt Handler)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks)
Date: Fri, 06 May 94 07:45:08 EDT
Regarding the Clipper Key Escrow scheme:
[1] Who has the ability to submit a warrant and request the key
data from the two controlling government agencies? Do you have to be a
Federal organization? Local? State? Could the Lower Merion Police
Department (from Lower Merion, PA, technically where I live) attempt to
obtain my escrowed key parts if they had a valid reason (and the
knowledge / equipment to use it)?
Anyone who has the right to do a wiretap under both Federal and state law.
That would include local police departments in very many states.
[2] What is to stop someone, once they have my escrowed key
data, from archiving it for later use? Do the federal agencies in
charge have any protocols or controls or protections against this?
Nothing that I know of, though that's not certain. Decryptions will
be done by a magic decode box; in theory, at least, the downloaded
key -- which will be Skipjack-encrypted -- could be accompanied by
a time-to-live field. Last I heard, the decoder boxes hadn't been
completely designed yet.
