The last part of the Baltimore Sun's series of articles on the NSA arrived today. It concentrated upon the prospect for a bloodless "Infowar." The article began with a hypothetical attack beginning on January 17, 2001, the tenth anniversary of the US bombing of Baghdad. In the attack, bad, computer related things happen like stock markets crash and all of the money is drained from the accounts of the sailors in the US Navy. The article then uses this as a beginning for a long contemplation of the NSA's future. Many of the details are well-known to cypherpunks. The NSA is poking around with drug interdiction, economic intelligence and computer security. The Russian linguists are being retrained. Etc. The article ends with a story told by Senator Rudman of NH. He says that 100 years ago, the houses were wood and we needed fire stations on every corner. Now, they're made of brick and concrete and come with sprinkler systems. The Fire Union might argue that you still need a fire station on every corner, he told the reporter, but that's not necessarily true. So, perhaps Clipper is a form of job insurance? True perfect security would not only hurt SIGINT, but it would remove the need for crypto firemen. If you want to have a system that gives some people access and not other people, then you need a lot of folks to stand around, sign forms and generally make sure that everything is running smoothly. Strong cryptography is automation. GAK requires a large bureaucracy to administer it. The article also has some anecdotes about how the agency protected US firms abroad. One company was alerted that its European competitor was bribing the Latin American officials who were choosing the winning bid. Also, when the Peso collapsed, the US negotiators had access to some information that the Mexican government wasn't being as forthcoming as they should have been about the country's assets. They used this information in negotiations. --Peter Wayner You can purchase the complete articles from the Baltimore Sun by dialing 410-332 6962. The price is $3.95. (See my second post for more info on an earlier article about Crypto AG).