All the interesting discussion of building RS-232 crypto dongles, notably the proposal of Yanek Martinson, remind me of the idea kicking around of simply programming a Sharp Wizard (or Casio B.O.S.S., etc.) to do the same function. (And eventually much of our critical encryption will likely be done on more powerful devices like the Apple Newton, General Magic gizmo, and Eo thingamajig.) These devices have several advantages: 1. Cheap. $150 or less. 2. No construction required. 3. Not likely to have trapdoors or other limits, at least not in the hardware, or in the units you buy today at your local electronics superstore. 4. RS-232 connections for PCs, Macs, etc. (used to be as an add-on, now often bundled with the units). 5. LCD display, keypad, etc. (some of the features Yanek was envisioning in later models of his dongle). 6. A fairly slow CPU, but one which is well-integrated with the other features (and which saves us the effort of designing and debugging). 7. Some have PCMCIA capabilities. 8. They can be used for other thingss when not being used as a dongle. 9. New versions of the software (e.g., PGP 3.21) can be added more easily, I suspect, than in a custom-built RS-232 dongle. 10. It is unlikely the NSA, FBI, or Patent Office could "ban" such devices, as they are already widely deployed. Only the specific programs that make them act as crypto dongles would be "bannable," and I doubt this could be enforced. By the way, the same arguments could be applied to using cellular telephones as the base for building/programming portable, personal crypto devices. (An exciting talk at Hackers on mods to Oki 900 cellphones was an eye-opener.) I don't think an easy interface to RS-232 ports exists, but I know some cellphones interface to computers (the Oki 900 above sure did). --Tim -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: by arrangement.