From: "Philippe Nave" <pdn@dwroll.dw.att.com> Jim Miller writes :
Assume you use strong crypto to protect your secrets. Assume a lot of people start using crypto to protect their secrets. Assume there are people who want to discover these secrets.
Might we some day see an increase in the number physical attacks as bad guys resort to rubber-hose methods to get at the keys that protect the secrets?
I think this phenomenon is more or less inevitable, unless serious thought is given to a way to prevent it. Let's take a simple example and progress to a more complex scenario: (Interesting examples deleted)
One can think up all sorts of hypothetical scenes. Underneath it all however, I believe is a simple axiom. When prevention methods thwart a criminals intent, they find new methods. Car alarms and security systems didn't convince the criminals who make their living ripping off cars that the *Good ole days were over* and it was time to get a job at Burger Sri, it spurred them to find new methods to ply their trade. Beyond that it didn't bother them to up the ante regarding the level of violence they would utilise. Now extrapolate that into the concept of industrial espionage, white collar crime, and put everyone on the same wire. !!!!! LUX ./. owen