re secret algorithm re clipper chip and crypto key escrow in article apr clarinet com sci crypt brad clarinet com brad templeton writes interestingly enough in designing the escrow we may want to use some rather unusual technology such as sealed boxes of paper or destructive read memory rather than typical computer databases which is fun for a database of hundreds of millions of keys to me a larger problem is that once disclosed your keys could be used to decrypt any previously recorded conversations i gather that from this proposal a warrant would be required to get the keys but not to collect conversations consider the scenario where an agency collects preemptively all encrypted conversations for certain people likely to be targets and not necessarily legitimate targets then arranges for some unrelated incident that can trigger a warrant your honor we know that the suspect has received calls from noted crime figure bugsy butthead said calls arranged by the agency and we must therefore have this warrant to determine whether this suspect in a sensitive govt post is corrupt i suppose that it is conceivable that there are session keys involved somewhere but that doesn t seem likely if there are why wouldn t the technical overview mention them when it goes to such details as the number of bits held by each escrow authority this scheme is full of holes and stinks to high heaven mel mel beckman internet mbeckman mbeckman com beckman software engineering compuserve ventura ca voice fax you can observe a lot just by watching yogi bera
