From: Sean Roach <roach_s@alph.swosu.edu>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 14:10:03 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Newt's phone calls
Message-ID: <199701142209.OAA04830@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 08:37 PM 1/13/97 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Don't be too sure that crypto is that far beneath the radar. I spent
>Thursday through Saturday at an annual privacy conference for activists
>from around the country, and they understood the principles. Their
>voicemails were filling up with calls from reporters last Friday about the
>Gingrich incident, and I know they were talking crypto.
...
Believe me, at least around here it is.
I am a college student studying computer science, and 80% of the people that
I talk to on a regular basis not only know how to play around with windows,
(and Netscape), but also at least a modicum of simple fixes to simple
problems, (such as unformatting a DOS disk).  This is what I consider to be
bottom level for that 80%, however, very few of them know even as much about
cryptography as I do.  And I barely know how to use PGP.
I have had Computer Science professors express ignorance as to what PGP is,
much less all of these others that I have learned about by hanging around here.
A few people know what crypto is, but most don't.