Summary: 1. Digital Cash is on the map. The Department of Justice will be aggressively pursuing it. Money laundering is becoming an increasing priority and crypto policy in the United States is almost certain to be a casualty. It's no longer, as it seemed to have been 6 months ago, a question of "well until the government finds out what the potential is, we are ok." It is now: "Until the government can manage to get the right people in an office together." I'm not sure this is a particularly long time. 2. Remailers are on the map. The Department of Justice will be watching these and an active effort to penetrate them is under way. What this means exactly is unclear. The Department of Justice, according to Jeff Smith and acknowledged by nods and "hmmm"'s of agreement from the DoJ panel members, is going to be attacking remailers. No idea how this may take shape, but its in the works. Beware Vatis and his ilk. 3. Both law enforcement and intelligence are displayingh an unnerving amount of cooperation. No longer can we depend on turf wars to distract them. 4. Might be a good idea to review implementations of crypto. Both James Woolsey and Stewart Baker made sly remarks about the reliability of crypto in the public domain. While this is to be expected, it might be a good idea to begin to look at crypto with a more discerning eye. In private conversation with Stewart Baker, my collegue mentioned the potency of crypto algorthms in the public domain. Wouldn't this make criminal use simply too easy? Should law enforcement not be considering banning all crypto. Baker wasn't giving away any secrets, obviously, but he did suggest that tho many of the publicly available methods were potent, their implementations might be weak. (This while touting a cute little "PGP" litigation bag. Anyone know where these can be found?) Perhaps its time to consider a more direct and careful implementation review of IDEA, 3DES, MD5 and other common methods? How widely reviewed is PGP's implementation REALLY? What about other public products? Bottom line: Be afraid, be very afraid. -- I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist unicorn@schloss.li