Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 13:42:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Brian Davis <bdavis@thepoint.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Thu, 27 Jul 1995, Phil Fraering wrote:
From: Ted_Anderson@transarc.com
I found these paragraphs in a recent Space News interesting. They were at the end of an article titled "Military Officials Open To Using ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Civilian Links" in the July 3rd issue.
[...] "Iridium, Globalstar, Inmarsat-P and Odyssey all plan to include features to permit authorized eavesdropping, officials said. ^^^^^^^^^^
Did you miss this word? While I suspect that you don't like Title III wiretaps, they are legal at present. The above contemplates legal wiretaps on some phone service that might otherwise be outside the reach of legal wiretaps. You misunderstand. With public key encryption, the proliferation of processor power and bandwidth, and their funding, there is NO reason whatsoever for the MILITARY to use an intentionally WEAK encryption system.
Hmm. Anyone here ever heard of the Walkers, or the Rosenbergs? > It's a pity that the military has decided that in its zeal to listen in on phone calls, that national security is an expendable asset.
The military is not authorized to listen in to any phone calls they want to hear. Otherwise, everyone on the list, including me, would probably be in some hidden military prison. :-) for the humor-impaired. I think you misunderstood: if we want a military in the first place (yes, I realize that's an open question to many people on this list) it needs to have as much of its communications encrypted as possible. Without back doors or intentionally weakened algorithms. Otherwise we're just stuck with a standard conventional force that isn't _that_ great compared to the combined assets of a reasonable assembly of enemy forces. I would go even farther: since so many of the troops sent over to the Gulf in the war there went with K-Mart-purchased GPS receivers that the military had to turn off selective availability, I am willing to bet that in future conflicts the U.S. soldier's ability to have secure communications (with no backdoors or weakened algorithms) is dependent on civilians having access to the same technology. Because the only way they might have it is if Ma and Pa go down to the local K-Mart and buy one for their son/daughter about to go overseas. (I could add some stuff about GPS vs. Geostar, but I figured I've wasted enough bandwidth already). Phil