From: Anonymous Remailing Service <nobody@armadillo.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 21:02:15 PDT
Subject: Time Keys, Some Secure Ideas (by Alias: Jay Hyden)
Message-ID: <199509270256.VAA09199@monad.armadillo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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             >> Time Keys, Some Secure Ideas <<

 The weakest attack on a time key based system is to spoof the
computer that keeps track of time into releasing encryption
keys i.e. change the clock.
 Perhaps this could be avoided by hardware inaccessability,
say a computer system taken to, and setup on the Moon by those
corporation that are already planning to place VR rovers on
the lunar surface.
 Any Earth bound system would be vulnerable to physical attack.

Here are some ideas for such a system:

o 7 clocks with absolutely no way of reseting them. Perhaps a
  system that will only let you tell it which clock is the most
  accurate, and only if you prove you are the proper authority
  and only if 4 other clocks are on the same minute.

o Redundant hardware and power collection and data transmit
  /receive systems, flash ROM hard drives for storing secret
  keys and neccesary programs and files. Built to last
  several centuries if possible.

o Key pairs could be generated on Earth, a time of release
  instruction and perhaps an optional other public key a
  (return at future date encrypted with this key option.)
  The package is then encrypted with one of the lunar
  systems keys, then transmited to the Moon. A verification
  could be encypted and sent back to insure data integrity.

o Other security checks in place would insure that the data
  was transmited to the Moon by the proper authority, i.e.
  the Corp. charging for this service. Additional backup
  logic that would insure that proper power and protocol
  exist for transmitions from the lunar system.

o The key pairs are witness generated, then sent to the lunar
  system, then the secret key is destroyed on Earth. The
  public keys become a one way hash to the future until the
  time designated by the key's owner has elapsed. Then the
  lunar system would transmit the owners secret key to Earth.

o  Upon time released instructions the lunar system would
   transmit the secret key, (encrypted if optioned) upon
   demand by a known packet radio method. So if the Corp.
   authority did not exist in say, 100 years, the data could
   still be retrieved by standard packet radio.

People who want to write to ONLY their great great grand-
children or the future world in general would have a forum.

Jay

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