[3101] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: John Gilmore and the Great Internet Snake Drive
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent Crispin)
Mon Jul 27 22:00:31 1998
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 18:43:20 -0700
From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net, coderpunks@toad.com, cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.96.980727211127.13539A-100000@albert>; from mgraffam@mhv.net on Mon, Jul 27, 1998 at 09:20:10PM -0400
On Mon, Jul 27, 1998 at 09:20:10PM -0400, mgraffam@mhv.net wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jul 1998, Kent Crispin wrote:
>
> > It occurs to me that an interesting use for the eff des cracker would
> > be the following: since the government asserts that DES is safe, then
> > a DES encrypted archive of crypto code should be exportable.
>
> No. Encrypting with DES, or any symmetric cipher
> does not destroy the information, which is what is controlled.
> Even losing the key does not destroy the information, as we all know:
> keys can be recovered it is just a matter of the work involved.
Apparently we are talking at cross purposes.
Currently, there are rather large ftp crypto archives that are
"protected" by a scheme using randomly generated directory names.
This is considered acceptable by the export authorities. The export
authorities would have a hard time, therefore, arguing that an archive
protected by encrypting the files with DES would not be sufficiently
protected.
It would be a stunt, of course. Merely another stunt to illustrate
the inconsistencies in the export laws.
[...]
> We don't need encrypted archives floating around.. we need to show that,
> like cars, crypto devices (programs or otherwise!) are useful even if
> they can be used by bad people for bad purposes.
>
> Abstract things like exporting a hunk of random crap and arguing about
> it don't achieve this, and will never do so in the minds of laymen
> with no real interest in crypto.
I quite disagree. Frequently a clever stunt does engage the layman
-- at least the intelligent laymen.
--
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair "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
