From: Mats Bergstrom <matsb@sos.sll.se>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 88bd067166dc214f72133f4f4d768de8ea3ee77376d7bab76556155f215d4380
Message ID: <Pine.3.85.9403141512.A9118-0100000@cor.sos.sll.se>
Reply To: <199403120226.SAA15428@jobe.shell.portal.com>
UTC Datetime: 1994-03-14 15:45:50 UTC
Raw Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 07:45:50 PST
From: Mats Bergstrom <matsb@sos.sll.se>
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 07:45:50 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Other Spy Agencies
In-Reply-To: <199403120226.SAA15428@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.85.9403141512.A9118-0100000@cor.sos.sll.se>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
On Fri, 11 Mar 1994, Greg - Kucharo wrote:
> "Im in for triple murder,how about you? I got 40 years for telling the Swedes
> about RSA so don't screw with me pal!Crypto huh,your one sick con."
There has still been zero in the Swedish public media about Clipper. I
have introduced the subject in the national Fido echo about datacomm,
including the unconfirmed information that .se (together with .uk) is
one of the first external countries to apply for a KF. (Swedish Fidonet
sysops seem to long for CALLER-ID, which has been postponed here for
reasons of privacy, to keep track of their users. Wouldn't this also be
beneficial for traffic analysis?) Cryptology in Sweden is probably
centerer to the Forsvarets Radioanstalt ('Radio Agency of the Defense')
which is as secretive about it's methods as any letter agency. Not until
recently did it become known that they compromised the German G-printer
during WWII. The teleprinter lines between occupied Norway and Denmark
went through Sweden and the traffic was encrypted with this Enigma-like
machine (I don't know exactly but it had about ten wheels that had to
match in adjustment plus an extra level consisting of cables from the
wheelhouse that could be set differently to twist the output). The crack
was done all by himself by one legendary genius called Beurling using
only pencil and paper. It took him two weeks from the day they picked him
up at the university (mathematician of course). After the war he took the
former seat of Einstein at the Princeton University but fell into
obscurity (allegedly he had serious personal problems). Regardless of
being neutral the Swedish Defence has cooperated with USA in covering the
Russian's radio traffic from the 40's until now. I'm sure they got
something back (more than RSA which is in the public domain). At the
moment I have some probes out to laywers to establish the status of the
Swedish cryptology laws (if any). A curiosity: The electromagnetic
spectrum is considered free here, contrary to most European countries,
meaning for example that pirate decoders for TV sattelite transmissions
are legal. This will probably change when Sweden, unfortunately, soon
enters the European Community.
//mb
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