From: Ernest Hua <hua@XENON.chromatic.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 09:07:44 +0800
To: vin@shore.net (Vin McLellan)
Subject: Re: Source Laundering <was: You bet they have/are: NSA/CIA to snoop INSIDE the U.S.???>
In-Reply-To: <v02140b01adec77b9e9ea@[206.243.160.205]>
Message-ID: <199606191734.KAA26918@server1.chromatic.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



This would be most cool.  In fact, cypherpunks should patent it,
and reap licensing fees from government/military use (keeping it
free for civilian use).

Ern

>         A thought:  Being pessimistic lately, and assuming our elected US
> pols continue their subservience to the spy agencies, I have a question.
> How difficult would be it to concoct a encryption-based scheme which would
> hold escrow keys in some sort of serialized time-sensitive one-way account
> -- a device that would make it all but impossible to get a key out of the
> account without leaving a permanent record that it was retrieved.  How many
> were retrieved?  When? By whom?
>
>         Is there such a scheme?  How does/could it work?
>
>         In defending privacy,  Accountability is a very powerful weapon.
> (Remember those FBI reports of 7-11 wiretaps?) I'd love to see such a
> tamperproof recording device imposed upon the FBI's access to its new
> Master Wiretap circuits, for example -- with a legislatively-mandated
> revelation of the unforgable results,  something comparable to the current
> law in criminal cases, and maybe with some 5-year sunshine provison for
> national security cases.
>
>         Such a scheme might be all we can get if this Administration or a
> future one gets a version of Clipper mandated.
> 
>         Cynics like many of you on this list may not realize how
> desperately these guys want to keep to the shadows.  Bright Lights and
> Accountability ought to be a Cypherpunk Goal -- even when the tide is
> running against us.  A well-documented tamperproof accounting scheme to
> document the use of these intrusive powers could result in a potentially
> powerful piece of legislation.