From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@amaranth.com>
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 11:32:12 +0800
To: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Subject: Re: Intel to rule the basic crypto engine market?
In-Reply-To: <199608300330.UAA14539@mail.pacifier.com>
Message-ID: <199608310131.UAA01464@mailhub.amaranth.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In <199608300330.UAA14539@mail.pacifier.com>, on 08/29/96 at 08:27 PM,
   jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com> said:

>At 03:56 AM 8/24/96 -0500, William H. Geiger III wrote:

>>Intresting but..., In the era of ITAR, GAK, Key Escrows,Clipper,& FileGate 
>>do we really want to put all our eggs in one basket? And that basket being 
>>based on hardware? IMHO I don't see Intell standing up to the government any 
>>more than Netscape, Mircosoft, IBM, or Lotus has. I have serious doubts that 
>>our "beloved" goverment will alow any standard to be adopted that does not 
>>allow them access whenever they please. I personally do not run any security 
>>code on my machines that I do not have the
>>source for & have instpected.


>The one kind of standardization in the crypto market that we truly need, 
>NOW, is a standard format/protocol so that crypto telephones from all 
>manufacturers can talk to each other.  The last thing we need is a 
>tower-of-Babel situation, which would be even worse than the VHS/Beta wars 
>of 20-10 years ago.


But who's standard?

I constantly here cries for standardization from those in the computer industry. I for one am against it. I like having choices, choices that are taken away by standardization.

In the area of crypto telephones I am definitely against standardization. If I wish to have an encrypted telephone connection my primary concern is that it is secure not whether or not I can communicate to every other phone out there.

I fear that an organized attempt to standardize will only bring about a 'weak' protocol for encrypted communications. One only has to look at what other standardization atemps have produced. Look at the works of IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, Netscape, all who have a vested interest in international sales. They have all to often tried to pawn off weak security in favor of the $$ from international sales.

A tower-of-babel is exactly what we need. The free market at its finest. The lemmings and the ignorant will use products from the "major" manufactures falsely believeing that they are secure. Those of us truly concerned with our security will have other choices to make.

Just my 2 cents,


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