I can second that notion. There are a good many people in all sorts of sectors of the government who can easily be brought to frothing over Mr. Freeh & his pals at the NSA's position on weak security systems. They like weakness, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together who's interested in good security rather rapidly end up coming to the conclusion that the FBI and the NSA aren't doing them any real favors. Basicly IMHO, Tim May called it right when he said they're more interested in snooping than securing. I've belived that for a long, long time now. It still manages to annoy me seriously whenever I think about it. The vulnerabilities that most military systems suffer from are both staggering and frightening, and it is criminal that the NSA has so seriously abrogated it's security role in the public and private sectors. I personaly belive it's going to take a rather massive info-terrorist attack before the control-freak crowd that's driving weak security takes a back seat. Worms from Lybian programmers anyone? Strong cryptographic systems are an integral part of strong security systems. The recent netscape crack shows why you can't have one without the other pretty well. If good security means cedeing some percived control over your populace, you should probably be examining wether your populace wanted your to control them in the first place it seems to me. Unfortunalty the anti-security crowd is firmly in control of the organs of the government, and does a damn good job spreading it's propaganda to dupes in the press. Stuff like the recent kneejerk "CyberPorn" crap and governmental actions & reactions in that area towards limiting civil liberties and security technology are great examples of it. Meanwhile, I think the US is starting to slip behind the curve in software technology for encryption & the like... This will probably prove intresting in the future, especialy if the CPU tossed at key escrow & the like turns up more surprises. Tim Scanlon ________________________________________________________________ tfs@vampire.science.gmu.edu (NeXTmail, MIME) Tim Scanlon George Mason University (PGP key avail.) Public Affairs I speak for myself, but often claim demonic possession