is key escrow enough from denning guvax acc georgetown edu revised april the chips are programmed by mykotronx inc which calls them the myk the silicon is supplied by vlsi technology inc all clipper chips are programmed inside a scif secure compartmented information facility which is essentially a vault the scif contains a laptop computer and equipment to program the chips about chips are programmed during a single session the scif is located at mykotronx acknowledgment and distribution notice this article is based on information provided by nsa nist fbi and mykotronx permission to distribute this document is granted so who is mykotronx inc it would be nice to know that they are not a front company used by an intelligence or other agency of the u s government while we are at it the chip design s should be examined and verified against silicon to insure no trap doors or hidden protocols exist in silicon regardless of the security level of the encryption algorithm there is no proof that the chip won t squeel and role over for someone with the proper knowledge to interrogate it via the communications link the design examination should be done to the gate level also how does one verify that what you are looking at is reflected in tapeout or masks the silicon should be examined as well the design in hand a clean room publicly defined clipper chip can be merged with another design later or changed between completion and mask out there is little proof that what you are told is in the chip is all that is in the chip put the verified masks in escrow and use them for chip production use a third escrow party for programming the chips the government is asking for a lot of blind trust the encryption algorithm operating protocols the agency having physical control of the devices the silicon implementation if the government is so trustworthy why escrow anything
