From: "Chris Adams" <adamsc@io-online.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 22:02:05 +0800
To: "cypherpunks" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: INteresting tidbit
Message-ID: <199606070506.WAA20840@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>On the Encryption note, and I swear not along the lines of the 'DOJ' 
>and 'FBI Snooping' Big-Brother events, I heard another story recently.
>
># begin story
>
>A person working on the MBONE project did an unannounced experiment
>across the internet using Triple-DES for MBONE, and the very next day, 
>'ATF' agents knocked on his door and warned him against exporting 
>munitions.  The experimentor was shaken by the fact that agents 
>approached him so quickly after the experiment.
>
># end story
>
>Extrapolations of fact:
>   1.   Internet traffic is monitored.
>   2.   The ability to snoop for encrypted traffic is present
>   3.   The ability to identify encryption levels is present
>        (How else can they differentiate DES-1 from DES-3?)
>   4.   The ability to crack DES-1 in near real-time mode is present.
>        (See above).
First, this has been loosely confirmed for ages. Someone was mentioning that FBI offices 
supposedly have software that (on a 486) can crack a DES-1 key in under an hour. Multiply * 
modern high capacity computers = problem.  However, this does not nessesarily follow from 
#3. First off, you could probably tell the encryption used from a file format; the software 
on the other end has to know what it's getting. Secondly, you could probably tell quite a 
lot about what was used by some intense analysis.
Finally, if their software cannot read it and analysis suggested it was more than DES-1 
then they might go after someone w/o being able to read the document in question.
>   5.   If above=true, then Feds dropping the Zimmerman PGP case probably
>        also points to it also being crackable in a similar manner.
Not necessarily. This freemen issue shows that the FBI is getting gunshy about bad 
publicity, which they were getting.
>   6.   Using encryption only flags traffic for capture and decryption, 
>        using strong encryption makes you all that more interesting.
Sounds like the old argument for encrypting everything...

>Sorry, couldn't resist.  I'll try not to start a threads about 
>electro-plasma propulsion craft at Area 51, metallic-ceramic skin 
>and pulse-jets on the Aurora spy plane, heat-imaging video cameras 
>on satellites and planes that can watch you through your houses' roof, 
>etc.  :)

What??? Now you're going to tell us X-Files is just a TV show? <g>

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