From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 05:20:32 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Espionage-enabled Lotus notes.
Message-ID: <ad23e65c090210046157@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 2:51 PM 1/18/96, Trei Family wrote:
>I've come up with a new term to describe the type of 'improved' security
>in the new International edition of Lotus Notes:
>
>'espionage-enabled'
>
>It's specifically built for export, and has a backdoor to enable USG agents
>to read the messages more easily. From the viewpoint of a foreign purchaser,
>'espionage-enabled' seems an appropriate term.
>
>If we spread this term sufficiently, we may be able to discourage the
>widespread adoption of this half-measure, and increase the pressure for
>good, unencumbered crypto.

I like this idea, and have already begun to use it. Even adding it to my
already long .sig.

Here's a post I sent to talk.politics.crypto and soc.culture.german. (I
included the German group because of the CompuServe situation and the fact
that they are already incensed by American criticisms of them...I figure
this could get them even more riled up, and even get a groundswell of
sentiment to boycott espionage-enabled software.)

Here it is:


You Germans need to be monitored.  The French, too. This has become
painfully clear.

Fortunately, IBM and its Lotus Development division have come up with an
answer: software such as Lotus Notes which is shipped to Germany (and
elsewhere outside the U.S.) will have an espionage-enabled encryption
system that allows the National Security Agency, CIA, and other
intelligence agencies to have easy access to your data.

The 64-bit key versions of software will actually be crippled, to allow
the NSA and CIA access to your communications. And the NSA has been
exploring options for "economic espionage," as a means of helping U.S.
industry to compete. Thus, your BMW and Daimler-Benz secrets can be
detected and passed on to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.

Brief excerpts from today's "Wall Street Journal":

-------

IBM Compromises on Encryption Keys, U.S. Allows Export of
More-Secure Notes

By Thomas E. Weber

New York -- International Business Machines Corp., caving in
to intense government pressure, agreed to include a special
key that helps investigators tap into data messages in return
for permission to export a more-secure version of its Lotus
Notes software.
...
"We were desperate enough to try to negotiate a short-term,
pragmatic solution," Mr. Ozzie said. "But we do not believe
this is the right long-term solution."
....
The new overseas version of Notes, tagged Release 4, will give
foreign users 64-bit security. But to get permission to export
the software, Lotus agreed to give the government access to 24
of those bits by using a special 24-bit key supplied by the
National Security Agency.
...

-------


Welcome to the New American World Order.

(Of course, another possibility is the Europeans, Asians, and others will
reject this espionage-enabled software and will instead rely on robust
software using the Web, software with full cryptographic security and
without the special NSA "back doors." Some may even boycott Lotus
Development products on general principal.)

--Tim May


Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."