From: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 05:06:02 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: RSA's Official Permission
In-Reply-To: <199610060521.WAA10181@dfw-ix1.ix.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <v03007803ae7dbbf4f60a@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 5:47 PM +0000 10/6/96, The Deviant wrote:
>On Sat, 5 Oct 1996, Bill Stewart wrote:
>
>> >   REDWOOD CITY, Calif.---Oct. 2nd, 1996--RSA Data Security, Inc., a
>> >   wholly-owned subsidiary of Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc.
>> >   (NASDAQ: SDTI), issued the following comments on the administration's
>> >   recent announcement of a Key Recovery Initiative:
>>         [rave reviews deleted....]
>>
>> I wonder how much being bought by SDT has influenced their positions?
>>
>
>presumably a very large amount, I seriously doubt if R, S, and A like
>supporting GAK.

Of the three, only Rivest has had any significant connection to RSADSI in
the last ten years or so. I heard from Diffie that Shamir's interest is
zero (such as that he sold his interest long ago). I don't know about
Adleman's interest, but I expect it is also minimal. Rivest has a
continuing role, of course, and has a sizable stock position.

As evidenced in the 10K-type documents John Gilmore pointed us to a few
months ago (the first public glimpse into the fincances of RSADSI), the
major stockholders are Addison Fisher (*), Jim Bidzos, and one or two
others.

(* Fisher--or it may be spelled "Fischer"--was once in the CIA,
interestingly, and has long had spook connections on contracts his company
works on. I had not realized he was a major RSADSI stockholder until the
10K documents were made public. You can draw your own conclusions, or not,
about NSA involvment in RSADSI. I don't know anything more than what I've
said here.)

--Tim

"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."