(with practice, I get more succinct. With luck I'll get a lot more practice at this! :-) Have y'all written, too? - Carl

TO: Letters Editor, Newsweek FAX: (212) 350-4120

SUBJECT: Mar 14, 94; p. 38; "Keeping the Cybercops Out of Cyberspace"

Dear Editor:

I consider myself a pragmatic critic and yet I propose scrapping any "key escrow" system, Clipper included. It is too insecure, not just because of government misconduct (although I am old enough to remember the Nixon administration) but because it opens discovery of encryption keys up to plain vanilla criminals.

By creating a database of master keys (no matter how many pieces they are in), what has previously required the mathematical genius and computer budget of the NSA to crack is laid wide open to people whose only skills are in bribery, breaking and entering, impersonation, coercion, ..., namely those skills in which organized crime is presumably more expert than even the CIA.

Meanwhile, the talk about wiretap court orders is misleading. Encryption will be needed by civilians in vast quantities not for wire communications but for wireless (and cellular) communications for which no one needs a court order to eavesdrop without fear of being detected.

Thank you for your article and for considering these additional points.

Sincerely,

Carl M. Ellison