From: Raph Levien <raph@c2.org>
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 03:09:59 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: "Re: NSA says strong crypto to china??
In-Reply-To: <199601070941.BAA12858@ammodump.mcom.com>
Message-ID: <199601071847.KAA26014@infinity.c2.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



   The original article in the Indpendent contained too many factual
inaccuracies to take the NSA statement at face value. Further, some of
the details resemble an interchange between Carl Ellison and the
OSTP. For the details, check out:
     http://www.clark.net/pub/cme/html/nist-ske.html 

Here's the relevant excerpt:

Sell to Chinese dissidents

In the opening session, Mike Nelson of the OSTP (Office of Science and
Technology Policy on the vice president's staff) presented his
discussion of the Key Escrow criteria. He was asked who in his right
mind would buy a product with a master key escrowed in the U.S., with
access by US Law Enforcement.

His answer was that a Chinese dissident would be quite happy to have
the key escrowed by a US agent, in the US, for US government access --
rather than by a Chinese agent, in China, for Chinese government
access.

That's a good plan, Mike. That's a huge market. I'm looking forward to
seeing the agreement with the People's Republic under which they allow
the importation of such products.

[end excerpt]

   My best guess is that we're seeing a distortion of this
interchange. If I were a Chinese dissident, I wouldn't want to use
GAK, for three reasons: using US-lackey encryption is certainly not
going to get you into any _less_ trouble than using independent
encryption, if you used GAK you'd be working as a US spy whether you
wanted to be or not, and finally, who says the Chinese can't decrypt
it, especially with the rapid growth of television.

Raph

P.S. To those who are suriprised that I'm still here - my flight got
delayed, and I'm waiting it out on the Net, in true geek style.