[4195] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Army "Basic Cryptanalysis" field manual legal status?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel J. Frasnelli)
Fri Feb 12 16:33:39 1999
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 16:00:14 -0500
From: "Daniel J. Frasnelli" <dfrasnel@csee.wvu.edu>
To: cryptography@c2.net
Greetings,
We are teaching an introductory cryptography and computer security
course in our department. One of my responsibilities is to create a resource
page with links to various useful documents, sites, etc.
From my personal archives, I found a tarfile containing what appears
to be a scanned-in copy of a Department of the Army cryptanalyst field
manual. Not sure exactly where I found it, but I provided a local copy
for the students anyhow. The professor called me to the floor on the
issue of legality of this manual, and after reading the first few pages,
I really do not know how to answer him.
The document is Field Manual No. 34-40-2 (FM 34-40-2) and has
"Headquarters. Department of the Army. Washington, DC, 13 September 1990"
on the first table of contents page. Title is "Basic Cryptanalysis",
and a nice little note at the bottom reads "DESTRUCTION NOTICE: Destroy
by any method that wilt prevent disclosure of contents or reconstruction of
the document". Any idea if this doc has been placed in the public domain
yet?
It's not a big issue for me, but the professor (obviously) does not
want to have an illicit book available from a public website on a school
server. Apologize for being slightly off-topic, but chances are the
crypto policy newsgroups have never heard of the document before.
Thanks,
Daniel
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