From: Brian A. LaMacchia <bal@martigny.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 21:22:13 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: NYT/Markoff article on RC4
Message-ID: <9409170422.AA11092@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


An article by John Markoff on the release of RC4 source code just came
over the NYT wire.  It's coded "financial;" I expect it to appear in
Saturday editions.  Doesn't say much we don't already know (quotes the
RSADSI statement that "...its publication is a gross abuse of the
Internet.").

The article does mention this list, which is called, "a specialized
computer network mailing list of computer researchers who oppose
the Government's stringent controls on data encryption technology."

There's a bug in the article: it says the code was first circulated on
Tuesday, Sep 13, and was posted via an anonymous remailer in the
Netherlands.  I assume Markoff is talking about the message:

   Message-Id: <199409132036.AA24724@xs1.xs4all.nl>
   Subject: RC4 ?
   To: cypherpunks@toad.com
   From: nobody@vox.xs4all.nl (An0nYm0Us UsEr)

The "Thank you Bob Anderson" message (which was the first posting of the
RC4 code that I saw) was posted last Friday, Sep 9, via the anonymous
remailer at jpunix.com.

					--bal