From: thomas.hughes@chrysalis.org
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 93 00:36:02 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: ENCRYPTED FILE SYSTEM
Message-ID: <9311170138.A0653wk@chrysalis.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




 Mi> No, don't use Diskreet. Use my Secure Drive. Beta now if you want it,
 Mi> and release with source soon. Uses IDEACFB, protects a hd partition
 Mi> and floppies, takes only 2K ram, and is very fast. Reasonably
 Mi> user-friendly. You have to create a D: partition to use on a hard
 Mi> drive. 

i said to LOOK at Diskreet. it is ultra user-friendly, auto installs at
bootup, has a panic key-combination that shuts the secure drive, cute
colorful Norton style pop up windows, and you can probably find a copy
at Wallmart. I'm not saying it's great, just that it's out and about.
 (I played with it for a while and decided that it wasn't any more
  secure than putting passwords on a ZIP file, so i dumped it.)

i would be thrilled to play around with something more "secure".
 (ie: my mailbox can handle whatever you wanna send to it.)


 Mi> What's the CPU in a Courier? Is the hardware well enough documented
 Mi> to hack something like this up? I once burned a rom for a friend's
 Mi> courier, from a file which he had, to give it V.32 instead of just
 Mi> HST which it previously had. Not sure where the file came from.
 Mi> An SRAM also had to be installed.

the $300 14k Couriers are supposed to be able to upgrade to V.FAST with
a simple chip upgrade. ie: they can have a fast-fancy-processor.
wouldn't life be easier trying to design a software version rather that
trying to figure out how to code for a funky USR processer?
 (i doubt they would be thrilled about sending you docs ...)
besides, if someone is willing to pay $300 for a Courier, they would be
just as willing to pay for some black-market UncleSam encryption modem.

I've seen multiple versions of programs that will do a perfect emulation
of MNP protocols, and if someone could dig up some source code you could
swap all the "compression" routines with "encryption" routines.
 (of course, since MNP is probably patented by [go figure] MNP,
  you would need to mutate it [PGPstyle:] to dodge lawsuits.)

maybe design the software to accept input from one port and output
to another and then set up stone age PC's as secure-phone-hubs and route
communications through them ... maybe some self booting EPROMs ...
 (a $50 286/20 or a $300 modem? not a tricky decision.)

i guess i better subscribe to that hardwarepunks list then, eh?
 (someone send me the address; i didn't write it down.)

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12