[1545] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Nyah, Nyah, I've Got A Secret
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Reid)
Sat Sep 20 19:53:58 1997
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 16:11:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steve Reid <sreid@sea-to-sky.net>
To: Carl Ellison <cme@cybercash.com>
cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19970920160842.00c29c40@cybercash.com>
On Sat, 20 Sep 1997, Carl Ellison wrote:
> Civilians have had strong cryptography for over 3000 years. That is
> because we civilians have invented the strongest cryptography during
> that time. We have used it for encrypting diaries, business messages,
> procedures for locating buried treasure, love notes, notes between
> school buddies, ....
The "crypto is normal" argument has been done to death. The people who
understand it understand it. The people in washington who _should_
understand it are only listening to the evesdropping agencies, even to
the point of ignoring the govenment's own NRC report.
> From my one sample (briefing staff who had had the NSA briefing), that
> closed door testimony included some false statements which would have
> been refuted if stated in open testimony. I don't know how many other
> pieces of false information were planted in the heads of Senators and
> Representatives.
It might be useful to point out that even though the FBI, NSA, et al.
are government agencies, they are still _special interest groups_. Like
any special interest group, they think they know what's best for
everyone, but really only see the world through their own special
interest "tunnel vision". If the elected officials could be made to
understand that then maybe the crypto battle could be fought on even
ground.
