Okay, here's another one. This time its Peter Wayner in the pages of BYTE magazine (volume 18, number 8, July 1993). 8<------ Article follows ------------- BYTE Magazine July 1993 page 36 News & Views; Data Security Clipped Wings? Encryption Chip Draws Fire Part of the Clinton administration's vision for a digital America is a fast encryption chip to help companies and individuals protect their secrets from prying eyes as voice and data messages are sent over communications wires. The catch is that this encryption chip includes a backdoor that will let law-enforcement agencies listen in. The White House believes that the hardware will protect all Americans' right to privacy while also protecting them from those who break the law. The chip is named Clipper (because Intergraph in Huntsville, Alabama, manufactures a processor with the same name, the Clipper moniker will likely be changed). It is a 12 Mbps encryption coprocessor designed by Mykotronx (Torrance, CA) and manufactured by VLSI (San Jose, CA). The chip is built in a tamper-resistant package to prevent reverse-engineering efforts to reveal the classified algorithm used inside. Along with privacy concerns that the government could abuse its ability to tap digital wires, another impediment to widespread acceptance of Clipper will be its cost. Ben Stolz, a member of the technical staff at Sun Microsystems (Mountain View, CA), says, "Our rule of thumb is that a part that costs n dollars adds 3n to 4n dollars to the final price [of a computer]." Raymond Kammer, acting director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Gaithersburg, MD), recently told a U.S. congressional committee that he hopes the Mykotronx chips will eventually cost $26 each if purchased in large quantities. That means a potential $75 to $100 addition to the price of each computer that uses the chip. Critics of the Clipper chip note that less expensive chips that provide DES encryption have not received widespread acceptance because software encryption, although usually slower than hardware, is less expensive. Jim Bidzos, president of RSA Data Securities (Redwood City, CA), says, "This is just another arrow aimed at preventing people from using RSA." RSA's cryptographic routines will be included in new releases of system software written by Apple and Novell and are already used in Lotus Notes. The government will undoubtedly provide a large market for the Clipper chip initially. President Clinton has already directed the U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to purchase several thousand units for use in computers and secure phones. The impact of the chip on the rest of the world, though, will be governed by economics. Paul Ferguson | "Confidence is the feeling you get Network Integrator | just before you fully understand Centreville, Virginia USA | the problem." fergp@sytex.com | - Murphy's 7th Law of Computing Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?