At 9:49 PM 8/17/95, Dave Banisar wrote:

The White House and NIST annouced today that they were planning to hold two open meetings next month to develop standards for "acceptable" software key escrow. The standards will then be made into a FIPS. The programs cannot have keys larger than 64 bits.

Its great to see that it only took them 18 months (since Feb. 94) to come up with a call for public meetings for something that nobody really wants anyway, expcept for the officals who plan to make it mandatory by slipping it through bit by bit and a couple of vendors. (sorry, sarcasm mode off...)

One thing I'm hoping for is that Clinton will, as he contemplates his last year and a bit in office, have an attack of "liberalism." That is, I am hoping he realizes that any mandatory key escrow system is not only a massive infringement on the right of people to speak and communicate as they wish, it is also handing the keys to the Surveillance State to the likes of Bob Dole, Jesse Helms, Alonse D'Amato, Newt Gingrich, and William Bennett. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."