From: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 17:24:20 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: New release of SFS available
Message-ID: <199604010448.QAA25352@cs26.cs.auckland.ac.nz>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I have just uploaded version 1.19 of SFS to the grumbo.uwasa.fi FTP site as:

 551004 Apr 01 01:19 grumbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/crypt/sfs119.zip

This release contains a number of major improvements over previous versions.
The most important is that it follows recommendations on the use of encryption
software to be released later today in a joint announcement by the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe and the US State Department.  To this end the
new version of SFS will abandon the use of MDC/SHS in favour of a classified
algorithm which the both NSA and GCHQ are confident will protect non-
confidential data.  Although the exact algorithm details cannot be published
due to its classified nature, it can be revealed that it uses prime number
cycle wheels, a system still employed today at the highest levels.

This algorithm improves on MDC/SHS by using a massive 2048-bit key, which would
take billions of years to exhaust via a brute-force search.  However in order
to satisfy the requirements of various organizations such as the Chinese
government (who need to ensure that no nasty outside influences pollute the
minds of their citizens) and to allow the originators of the 83.5% of all
Usenet traffic which contains porn to be prosecuted (a recent example being the
widely publicised move by the Office of the Bavarian Illuminati to force
Compuserve to drop all sex-related newsgroups), SFS 1.19 will store 2032 bits
of the key in the clear along with the encrypted data.

The head of the FBI Louis Freeh has been quoted as saying that "this will
provide adequate protection against your little sister or your mother, while
allowing law enforcement agencies to investigate people using encryption for
illegal purposes".  The head of the French DSSI agrees: "There have been too
many cases of industrial espionage by foreign government intelligence agencies.
For example in 1993 one such agency acquired over $1 billion worth of business
for their own countries' companies in this manner.  SFS 1.19 will protect
against this problem, while allowing us to maintain control over French
national security interests".

The German government has tentatively approved SFS 1.19 for public use provided
that it undergo a few small changes to comply with an updated form of the the
Fernmeldeanlagen Ueberwachungs-Verordung (FUeV), which will require that all
German users of SFS be connected to a central system to which copies of all
keys used, times of encryption and decryption, identities of users, and copies
of all encrypted data, be automatically forwarded.  The Minister of the
Interior Manfred Kanther stated that "this should fulfil the requirements of
the German government for monitoring possible criminal use, although I might
change my mind about this in a minute or two".

Peter.