At 9:46 AM 12/6/96 -0500, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
If an entrepreneur wants to sell a new electrical gizmo and wants an independent review of its safety, he pays $$$ for it. Apparently one of the functions of the new brand of "cypher punks" is to provide a similar service for free. Sorry, I'm not a part of it, and I'm not *that* interested in Don's proposal. I have better use for my time.
However, I assume that you have no objection to others reviewing Don't proposal for free (Actually for reputation).
I also don't think that the ease of breaking the code should be the only consideration in evaluating a low-end cryptographic product. ...
... If someone wants to market (and support) a crypto package for the masses and gets the masses to deploy it, I take my hat off to them. It doesn't matter if the code itself can be cracked as easily as the codes used in PKZIP or MS Excel or MS Word (reportedly). If the users discover that the code isn't strong enough for their needs, they'll upgrade to stronger codes. The path from weak crypto to strong crypto is much shorter than the path from no crypto to some crypto.
If the user interface and [did you mean "is" - bf] logical and transparent and provides hooks to replace the weak (non-export-controlled) crypto being shipped with a stronger one (say, by FTPing a DLL) then it's a Good Thing.
Good interfaces are definitely something needed for the widespread adoption of crypto, either strong or weak. However, the general opinion I have heard is that UIs with easily replaced crypto are covered by ITAR.
Don is doing a Good Thing and the "cypher punks" are doing an evil thing.
If Don is contributing to better interfaces, then I agree he is doing a good thing. If all he is doing is proposing a new algorithm and describing it with, to be charitable, non-standard uses of well defined terms, then I disagree. I strongly disagree that cypherpunks are doing an evil thing by exposing the weaknesses in anyone's (including Don's) crypto system. There are many ways to contribute, and publicizing the facts about a system are one of them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | The lottery is a tax on | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | those who can't do math. | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz@netcom.com | - Who 1st said this? | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA