DEADBEAT <na5877@anon.penet.fi> says:

If one's objective is to use SKIPJACK but to defeat key escrow, pre-encryption is easier, conceptually simpler, and may be more secure

Right now, you need to arrange things with another party if you are going to have secure communication. If Clipper catches on the way the government wants, you may be able to assume that someone you want to contact has an encryption device compatible with yours. If Blaze's hack can be used by the initiator of a communication to defeat key escrow without the cooperation or knowledge of the other person, then Clipper will have made it more difficult for law inforcement, since then criminals and other people with privacy concerns will be able to have secure communication with people who are not part of their pre-arranged secure communications system. That, the defeat of traffic analysis, and the avoidance of the attention one could draw by using non-LEAFed encrypted traffic, are the advantages of Blaze's result. -- sidney <sidney@taurus.apple.com>