At 04:30 PM 10/6/00 -0700, Tim May wrote:
The information you need to send is broken up into multiple pieces and an index. The simplest method would be ...
In places where crypto is illegal, this approach would also likely be illegal. "But, Obergruppenfuhrer Mueller, I am not actually using crypto. These hundreds of broken up files I have received are merely unwanted messages sent to me. "
BTW, the issue is a lot more than just "plausible deniability." This may work in the U.S., until the Constitution is further shredded. But "plausibility deniability" is not enough when dealing with the Staasi, or SAVAK, or Shin Bet, or the Ayotollahs. Mere suspicion is enough.
The point is that each message doesn't have decryptable cyphertext. It only has a secret-share that no recipient can decode until they have enough shares of the same message, even if the KGB rubber-hoses them, and the KGB cryptanalysts won't be able to find anything more than random noise in the message because with <K shares, that's all you can get. Now random noise may also be suspicious, but it's less suspicious than something that's got more structure to it. Even if they do suspect the recipient and seize his computer, they'll only get old messages, not the new partially-received ones. Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639