Given that trust is often of an ephemeral nature, it would be quite useful to set time limits on secrets. Would it be possible to cryptographically protect a secret such that it could not be decrypted after a certain time? It's a nice idea, really. The problem is - how do you verify the absolute time? For instance, by resetting a PC's internal clock you can instantly circumvent that measure. Possibly by forcing

At 07:21 AM 11/8/95 -0500, John Curtis wrote: the application to consult a "reliable" clock like one of the cesium clocks, but that could be hacked. Unless you can absolutely, reliably, and without fear/danger of being hacked around, verify the correct time, self-destruct crypto probably won't happen. ----- David E. Smith, dsmith@midwest.net, PGP ID 0x92732139 http://www.midwest.net/scribers/dsmith