[396] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Dorothy and the four Horseman
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Arnold G. Reinhold)
Thu Mar 20 00:37:20 1997
In-Reply-To: <199703200235.SAA22806@mail.pacifier.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 00:18:25 -0400
To: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
From: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
>At 10:45 PM 3/18/97 -0400, Arnold G. Reinhold wrote:
>>I've always wondered why some law enforcement organization (or newspaper,
>>for that matter) doesn't publish a PGP public key for use by people who
>>want to submit tips on criminal activities without fear of interception.
>>
>>Such a PGP tip key could be a significant aid to fighting crime.
>
>Jim Bell responded:
>But that wouldn't be enough. What's needed is an entire system which allows
>individuals to anonymously submit encrypted tips to the police, but also
>publish those tips in encrypted form, and allow those individuals to (later)
>expose the details of those tips to the public.
>
I think one can do that now. Tipster encrypts message with the police
dept's public key and her own key, using PGP's multiple recipient feature.
She uses an anon remailer to send this message to police and to alt.tips.
Later she can reveal the plaintext and the session key PGP used. Anyone can
recode the plaintext and match it with the original cyphertext message from
the alt.tips archive. Anyone can also re-encode the exposed session key
with the police key to verify that she really used the cops' key when she
first posted the message.
>The cops wouldn't like this at all! Suddenly, they'd be on the hook for
>tips that they failed to follow-up. They'd have to become...honest!
>
Your system might help a little, but the police usually don't deny they got
a tip, they just point out how many they get, or claim they checked it out
and found nothing conclusive.
Arnold
