-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On 3/28/98 5:53 PM, mgraffam@mhv.net (mgraffam@mhv.net) passed this wisdom:
In this case, I figure that their best option is to beat Alice everyday forever or until she dies. Whichever comes first.
The longer they beat her, the better chance there is that she broke down and gave them her most important secrets. Even if she can't prove it.. so what? The rubber-hose group isn't exactly the boy scouts. They beat her the next day too, this time a little harder.
Alice may hold up, she may not.. I don't really see the cryptosystem helping here. You can't win a game when the other player doesn't use your rules. You have to use the same set of rules. We know that the rubber-hose wielding guys aren't going to play by Alice's rules. So, the only way for Alice to win is to do the impossible (because this is reality, not TV) and that is to grab the rubber hose and beat them with it.
The whole point is that since such a system offers no way to verify that Alice has indeed at any point given them 'everything' she has to tell, they will keep beating Alice; Alice, recognizing this at the outset has no reason to give them anything because she knows that since she cannot prove she has given them everything they will beat her again and again no matter what she does. The idea of successive keys unlocking more and more important data means that she can chose to give them some of her keys and then just grit out the beatings til they either develop conscience (unlikely), lose patience, (more likely), or figure they have gotten all there is to get. While this method guarantees a beating, it really does offer the best chance of getting away with the withholding of the most secure keys. The only chink in the system would be independent knowledge from a coworker or some such that there is more there. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBNR2H/z7r4fUXwraZAQFbUgf/V97xgxpNs0wIcvUvoUK0p4gShYrzqDRm qXMz6rVTwMKNhBF/0Jdsfu8PMq7M6ZoU051I5FqYEgI2uaqUMxoPx9qjrGOJnOv3 pXr5usa4rRVv5k7mQOJjd1zXXbcJNo6QWWk35zbLS5ecXQgN98Ex2DgApxACzKin 6+rpaTPFzOaktIzSVvM0on2TcC7ifkhkzDjsqIYx3b3gp73p+kzlWgkxngSM2rXZ Od2eEQDSJDnQc4n5DU7xxmwQ5qxz5GCcQiONHkL4pXSHvkbvGkNkPS8Ms/hsF2nJ SiSlmoYQBem3YB/Ik1UEFrqOhRispsYU9NAgii7EtqyAReEnYMI1gQ== =0JND -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Brian B. Riley --> http://members.macconnect.com/~brianbr For PGP Keys mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail" - Ralph Waldo Emerson