Ah, this seems to be the IP encryptor of choice: https://infosec.navy.mil/PRODUCTS/CRYPTO/KIV-21.html -Declan On Fri, Aug 31, 2001 at 09:41:56AM -0000, Dr. Evil wrote:
Does anyone know why this KIV-7 thing is so super-seekrit, or why the Chinese would want it so badly that they paid to smuggle them? It is made by Mykotronx, the same guys who made the Clipper chips. From what I could find about it, it just sounds like a super-secure VPN box that can basically encrypt T1s and satellite links. It is TEMPEST-spec. I couldn't find out exactly what kind of encryption alg it uses, but is it likely to be any better than AES? It does have some great features, like removable keys, and it probably has some amount of tamper-resistance, but it's still not doing anything more than VPNing, but at a telco layer, not an IP layer. Surely the Chinese could have gotten the same functionality with a couple of OpenBSD boxes with ipsec? Maybe it wouldn't be as nice of a package, but it would be a lot cheaper. Or maybe they were hoping to find some backdoor in it? Seems unlikely that there is one in this product.
Hey, for a good time, you can go to the KIV-7 conference at the Golden Nugget hotel, January 15-17. Maybe I'll see you there.
In these cases, I always wonder, "what's the real story?"