From: "Robert Rothenburg 'Walking-Owl'" <WlkngOwl@unix.asb.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 07:28:07 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Letter Re: Kahn Supporting GAK
Message-ID: <199702051528.HAA28822@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

My letter to Long Island Newsday regarding David Kahn's pro-GAK
editorial was published today. You can read it at

    http://www.newsday.com/mainnews/rnmi052u.htm

What's odd (?) is how they editied it. I directed my comments toward
Mr. Kahn's views, which they changed to "Newsday" (odd, since I've
never seen them print an editorial one way or another on GAK; does
this mean they are taking a stand? -- Kahn is an editor at Newsday).

I wrote "The greatest flaw in the argument is it's very reason,
'criminals... are increasingly using encryption to conceal their plans
and activities'" which they changed to "It reports...". I never
considered an op-ed piece as "reporting", even if it states a fact.

The following paragraph

  There are also a variety of technical problems associated with
  escrowing encryption keys, mainly, how to do so securely? A single
  `backdoor key' (or set of keys) for a popular product can become an
  easy target for crackers who can jeopardize the security of an
  entire system. Software can be easily hacked to disable or damage
  the key escrow features, and there are techniques to hide even the
  presence of a message in something innocuous as a digitized image.
  (Mr. Kahn seems to have forgotten to mention that the FBI not only
  wants to overhear cellular phone conversations but also read E-mail
  and any other encrypted files people have.)

was changed to just

   There are also several technical problems associated with escrowing
   encryption keys, mainly, how  to do so securely. 

They did leave the last two paragraphs relatively intact, though.

Yeah, yeah... the piece could have been much longer & detailed, but
it's only a letter to the editor...

- --Rob

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 4.5

iQEVAgUBMvhdzgTNlSxdPy6ZAQEw8Qf9FnDSSd/m+XwUxU1CCJnwVOrvS4qyIubX
2E18o2rrS+F8TDjkhVsaDR3lJNqikdOzAL2GfjX53/cBEOhYcYcip7IHkd8UxqY6
zDHp2LwWnSuF8wwxeKw/DyPhAURsxYAl+LCJbsJjK+zxpgPU1Z0YzFkj3Am6bscv
t8qiPoTxUF3tusueT5I3xQsRgEAx1SNwRHgQGzLS+zPwdFBT9ZsIsp4EbZ0fx1cE
ZpbIxu1koDCWhkmJdTiL5HXXJ6mROJvCIGHfr1NU099AlIOO/FXq2UTnti2TzQn7
wYF73490ru1AFMEViLipj3zXzJsIGBo32La37yDozBEItd32B0L/+w==
=3wRg
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

-----
"The word to kill ain't dirty     | Robert Rothenburg (WlkngOwl@unix.asb.com)
 I used it in the last line       | http://www.asb.com/usr/wlkngowl/
 but use a short word for lovin'  | Se habla PGP:  Reply with the subject
 and dad you wind up doin' time." | 'send pgp-key' for my public key.