I recall having a conversation at the Boston ExI meeting, talking about super computers and how fast they could break small keys (like 80 bits). I think it was carlf, and I don't recall the exact estimate given, it I think it was on the order of several hours to several days for a fast connection machine class super computer to break such a key by brute force. The NSA certainly has plenty of fast machines, and I assume they will be able to break any clipper based encryption routinely. Certainly as 64-bit, high speed multiprocessors come on line in the next few years it will be easier and easier for even us plain folks to break such keys (although I sure not a simple task). With NSA having the algorithim and access to perhaps at least half the key or perhaps some little bit of "known text" that clippper puts into each message to make it easier to do a known text attack on someone's clipper encoded message, we can assume that the escrowed keys are at best a ruse... -- Harry Shapiro habs@panix.com List Administrator of the Extropy Institute Mailing List Private Communication for the Extropian Community since 1991