From: Michael Froomkin <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 14:57:40 +0800
To: s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca
Subject: Re: Federal Key Registration Agency
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9606201224.B27834-0100000@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.94.960620211746.20271D-100000@viper.law.miami.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I have seen the text of the speech.  The wire service accounts wildly,
wildly exaggerate.  This is a non-story...except for AG Reno's assertion
that it would take the government a year to break one DES message with a
"supercomputer".  She presumably believes this.  We know the number for
known plaintext attacks, but assuming you don't have a known plaintext,
what's a more reasonable assumption? 

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A. Michael Froomkin        | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)
Associate Professor of Law | 
U. Miami School of Law     | froomkin@law.miami.edu
P.O. Box 248087            | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin
Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's hot here.  And humid.