[944] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
encryption by the wind in an open field
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Carl Ellison)
Fri Jun 6 14:19:51 1997
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 12:14:11 -0400
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: Carl Ellison <cme@cybercash.com>
If two criminals meet in an open field and have a private discussion which
is not monitored, incriminating information could get lost. It disperses on
the wind and soon becomes so weak and diffuse that it can no longer be
decrypted. It's as if it were shredded or mulched (on paper) or subjected
to a massive transposition cipher with a key that gets lost.
If a criminal writes a diary entry for himself including incriminating
information then deletes it with a good disk wiping program, does the
lost data differ in any significant way from the dispersed verbal
communication of the previous paragraph?
If a criminal writes a diary entry for himself including incriminating
information and encrypts it and then loses the key, does the undecipherable
ciphertext differ in any significant way from the deleted data
of the previous paragraph?
If a criminal writes that diary entry and forgets the key, has the key been
lost? Should attempts be made by coerced hypnosis to recover the key?
If a criminal writes that diary entry and claims to have forgotten the key,
can he be trusted and should the key be treated as lost?
If a criminal writes that diary entry and remembers the key but refuses to
hand it over, is he guilty -- and, if so, of what?
- Carl
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