From: Ben Laurie <ben@algroup.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 06:58:17 +0800
To: Bruce Schneier <schneier@counterpane.com>
Subject: Re: ArcotSign (was Re: Does security depend on hardware?)
In-Reply-To: <199809220552.XAA17972@nyx10.nyx.net>
Message-ID: <360790AF.AAE039E2@algroup.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Bruce Schneier wrote:
> 
> At 11:55 AM 9/22/98 +0100, Ben Laurie wrote:
> >Colin Plumb wrote:
> >>
> >> Doug, I'd just like to thank you for replying.  Even without looking at
> your
> >> description, the fact that you are willing to talk to doubters and admit
> >> the limitations of your technique make me a lot more comfortable believing
> >> that you have something.  You don't fit into either of the two standard
> >> types of snake-oil salesmen: The "I can't tell you because it's secret"
> >> sort, and the "it's totally unbreakable, cures world hunger and
> >> disposes of nuclear waste" sort.
> >
> >Clearly I failed to understand this, then:
> >
> >"This note doesn't tell everything about our method--we *are* developing
> >a commercial product, after all..."
> >
> >which somehow doesn't translate to "I can't tell you because it's
> >secret", it seems.
> 
> Well, _I_ think they can explain everything (and we hope to do an academic
> paper on the idea), but it's not my decision.

I hope you manage to persaude them then, because, as we all know, if it
is kept secret, then even B. Schneier saying it is great will not rescue
them from the snake-oil branding.

Cheers,

Ben.

-- 
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