Ok, this is a 'what if': What if: The government backs down on clipper, agreeing that there will be no escrowing of keys, but says that communications with the government must use Skipjack in order to establish a single encryption scheme for government communications. (this has the benefit of creating a huge userbase, thus establishing it as a standard.) What if: Skipjack, as designed, has a (secret) hole in it that will decrypt ANY communications using it. This means that anybody with the master skeleton key would be able to read Skipjack encrypted information. ========================= If you think about it, the above makes sense. The government wants to spy on the population, but the population can't know about the spying. Thus, they propose escrowing keys, which they know will raise public outrage. They put up a half-hearted fight and then back down, making hte public thinks they've won. In reality, though, Big Borther has won as they have put an compromised algorithm into general use that will allow them to do what they wanted to all along. Granted, they couldn't prosecute cases with evidence from taped Skipjack communications, but as we've seen, wiretaps are used so infrequently that it really isn't relevant. But, as long as they lay low, they can spy on any Skipjacked communications among business and other government agencies. Is the above feasible? ____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu \ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=- \/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> Political Correctness is \/ Finger for PGP 2.3a Public Key <=> P.C. for "Thought Police" -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- (GEEK CODE 1.0.1) GAT d- -p+(---) c++(++++) l++ u++ e+/* m++(*)@ s-/++ n-(---) h+(*) f+ g+ w++ t++ r++ y+(*)