From: m5@vail.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 94 11:30:19 PST
To: rcain@netcom.com (Robert Cain)
Subject: Re: doj_escrow_intercept.procedures (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <199402042259.RAA00682@eff.org>
Message-ID: <9402051926.AA10212@vail.tivoli.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Robert Cain writes:
 > Wow! That procedure...

I'm having great difficulty extracting meaning from your prose, but I
think you're saying that you like that the government has escrowed
keys to Clipper phones for use in "national emergencies".

 > Imagine that it is your city that gets a terrorist nuke built
 > in one of its basements.

We don't have many basements in Austin.

 > Truly secure and easy communication makes
 > that a whole lot easier 

Makes *what* a whole lot easier, building the bomb or catching the
bombers?

 > but then since a truly secure box is real
 > simple to make, 

Really?

 > it sort of obviates the reasoning for trying to do the
 > standardization anyway.

Obviates the reasoning?  I'm confused.

 > Anybody who really wants absolute security
 > will be able to get it at some price that won't be too high.  :-)

So what exactly are you talking about?  Sounds like you're happy the
government introduced Clipper because it's so easy for anyone to build
secure cryptographic devices.  I'm having trouble understanding this.

 > I would like to propose us the challenge to come up with a way
 > utilizing this crypto technology and signatures and such to guarantee a
 > verifiable trail whenever it is done that is available to any court
 > of law.

Whenever *what* is done?  Whenever somebody builds a nuclear bomb?

 > The implication is clear ... I suggest that, as Tom Lehrer talks about
 > on his album Revisited, we "Be Prepared."  :-)

I think we should start with, "Be Lucid."

--
| GOOD TIME FOR MOVIE - GOING ||| Mike McNally <m5@tivoli.com>       |
| TAKE TWA TO CAIRO.          ||| Tivoli Systems, Austin, TX:        |
|     (actual fortune cookie) ||| "Like A Little Bit of Semi-Heaven" |