clipper proposal key length danny weitzner djw eff org writes april initial eff analysis of clinton privacy and security proposal details of the proposal escrow the bit key will be divided between two escrow agents each of whom hold bits of each key the manufacturer of the communications device would be required to register all keys with the two independent escrow agents a key is tied to the device however not the person using it so if we subvert one of the two escrow agents we only have a bit space to search through doesn t sound that big is digital telephony subject to a known plaintext attack in which case half the key seems to be all that is needed and the two agent escrow arrangement is pointless of course the unknown algorithm might turn gaps in speech into pseudo random sequences or there might be some magic involved or mike bell promis com
