From: pfarrell@netcom.com (Pat Farrell)
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 95 03:33:25 PDT
To: pfarrell@netcom.com
Subject: NIST notes available
Message-ID: <199509081030.DAA06056@netcom3.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Thanks to John Young, I have placed the test of the handouts
from Wedensday's and Thursday's meetings on my Nist pages.
url: http://www.isse.gmu.edu/~pfarrell/nistmeeting.html

It is my belief that this meeting was a staged presentation. 
Nearly every industry representative
said that this was a fatally flawed idea. It was 
"a non-starter." The government representatives
said that they heard the comments, but insisted on proceeding. 

The most depressing presentation was Thursday morning, made
by a high level Dept of Justice flack. I'll have to dig out my
notes, his name was Geoff G...
He presented the usual drug dealer, pedophile and terrorist line,
and added corrupt government officials. He pretended to talk about
foriegn bad guys. Nearly all were domestic. He clearly wants
weak GAK so that he can decrypt anything domestically that
he wants.

It is clear to me that the government intends that industry 
provide crippled encryption "for export"
with the never stated expectation that since industry has 
repeatedly said that they want only one
version of products, capable of being sold worldwide, 
that Domestic products will be crippled. 

It is equally clear from representatives of IBM, Compaq, DEC, 
Lotus, and others that I talked to, that crypto product 
development will simply move offshore. Ireland, Israel, 
and Germany already have significant experience in 
developing commercial software. 

It is depressing to hear our Commerce department chasing technology 
and jobs overseas.

GAK is bad enough. Weak GAK makes me gag.

Pat
 
Pat Farrell      grad student        http://www.isse.gmu.edu/students/pfarrell
Infor. Systems and Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
PGP key available via finger or request           #include standard.disclaimer