[927] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Better write this one down. (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eugene A. Bernstein)
Fri May 30 13:08:31 1997
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 11:01:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Eugene A. Bernstein" <eab@world.std.com>
To: Digital Commerce Society of Boston <dcsb@ai.mit.edu>, cryptography@c2.net
Just sharing with the list a forward from a friend.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 02:28:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Steven W. Orr" <steveo@uniprise.com>
--------------"Listen to me! We are all individuals."-------------------------
From: glen mccready <glen@qnx.com>
Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: Chuck@Yerkes.com
Forwarded-by: Richard@Reich.com and David@zeitgeist.com
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/story/3760.html
... And That's What Encryption Is
by Wired News Staff
2:58pm 9.May.97.PDT It's rare to get a glimpse of the lawmaking
mind as it churns policy. But with the help of an unnamed
Washington reporter, the public got a look at how two Democratic
senators who want to pass a new law on how encryption should be
used and regulated think about the issue.
The setting was an informal daily get-together with reporters
sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
On Thursday, Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska was on hand to announce
he is sponsoring a cryptography-control bill. We pick up the
proceedings with a reporter's question to the senators:
How would you define encryption?
Daschle: Encryption is the - and Senator Kerrey can do a lot better
job than I can - but my definition of encryption is to create a
code by which sensitive information can be protected on the
Internet....
Kerrey: Well, I mean, to answer your question, I mean, encryption
is - the political equivalent of encryption is you ask me a
question, I give you an answer and you don't understand it. I mean,
I intentionally garble the answer frequently. I intentionally
garble the response so that you can't understand what I'm saying.
And that's - you notice that I've got the ability to do that. I
don't always do that, but that's what occurs with digital
communication. The message is scrambled in a way that is very
difficult to unscramble. And depending upon the power of your
computer, you in fact may not be able to unscramble it at all.
