1997-05-16 - Re: NSA likes strong crypto?

Header Data

From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Message Hash: b11916b17c7eb113b7af36de55138b590c0d4c8bff59ee36a8ac3f93f610f808
Message ID: <19970515175354.52395@bywater.songbird.com>
Reply To: <v0300781cafa0ea98034c@[207.94.249.70]>
UTC Datetime: 1997-05-16 01:13:39 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 09:13:39 +0800

Raw message

From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 09:13:39 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: NSA _likes_ strong crypto?
In-Reply-To: <v0300781cafa0ea98034c@[207.94.249.70]>
Message-ID: <19970515175354.52395@bywater.songbird.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, May 15, 1997 at 12:42:15PM -0800, Tim May wrote:
[...]
> 
> And using longer keys is "easy" to do. Breaking longer keys is "hard."
> Strong crypto wins out very quickly.
> 
> This is why there is no "middle ground" on crypto...it's either strong or
> its weak, with nothing in between.

An oversimplification.  You, of course, know better.  A crypto system
has to be considered as a whole (rubber hoses, key management, etc). 
That's where the "in between" comes from, and will continue to come
from, regardless of the strength of the algorithms. 

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html






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