[748] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: key recovery vs data backup
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Carl Ellison)
Thu May 8 00:25:11 1997
Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 23:47:07 -0400
To: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
From: Carl Ellison <cme@cybercash.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <19970507185446.15002@bywater.songbird.com>
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At 06:54 PM 5/7/97 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
>> The appropriate way to achieve this is to list the corporate firewall
>> as a crypto recipient (or to list your group manager as one, if
>> your mail needs to be readable by him) -- not to provide a default
>> access path which might be exploited by the enemy.
>
>"Appropriate" by what criteria? Key recovery systems can be just as
>secure as the methods you describe. They also have the virtue of a
>direct, clear, intuitive model that can be explained to a corporate
>executive in 5 minutes. [All keys are kept in a virtual safe; the
>company has guaranteed access to *all* encrypted data; the keys are
>just as secure as the safe is, and it can be made very secure.]
>
>This is simple and understandable, it clearly works, and the
>tradeoffs and dangers are pretty clear.
>
>On the other hand, if you tried to sell an executive on the idea that
>everyone in the company should use rump96.html for key recovery, you
>probably won't get very far. It is fundamentally an individual
>solution, not an organizational one.
I wasn't proposing rump96 as the solution here. Rump96 is the solution
for an individual who wants access to his own data.
I was saying that if Sam needs to read my encrypted file/mail, then I should
list Sam as a crypto-recipient. If Acme,Inc. needs to read my encrypted
file/mail, then I should list Acme,Inc. as a crypto-recipient.
There's no safe of keys. It's even simpler to explain to an executive.
- Carl
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