From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 15:03:59 +0800
To: "William H. Geiger III" <cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Subject: Re: Misty???
In-Reply-To: <199801220634.BAA28888@users.invweb.net>
Message-ID: <v03102801b0ec9df81dd5@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 9:08 PM -0800 1/21/98, William H. Geiger III wrote:

>Well on another mailing list I have been chastised for calling Misty
>"snake-oil".
>
>Has anyone actually examined this algorithm? Seems there is an IETF Draft
>on it (draft-ohta-misty1desc-00.txt).
>
>Any opinions on it?? My only exposure has be through the pidgon-english
>posts of Nobuki Nakatuji (if it looks like a duck, it smells like a duck,
>it quacks like a duck ....).

I wouldn't call Misty "snake oil." But it's also been thoroughly taken
apart and shown to be weak. Importantly, it was submitted by Mitsubishi for
peer review.

"Snake oil" is a name I reserve for, well, snake oil. Some of the recent
nonsense we've seen is more snake oilish than Misty was.

Of course, there should be no real interest in Misty anymore, except as an
example to study, so anyone trying to promote it might be accused of
peddling snake oil.

As for Nobuki-san's consistently strange posts, I'm now persuaded he may be
a troller. Or just not very bright.

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."