-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Date: Tue Feb 07, 1995 10:15 PM EST To: cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Fwd: Seals and Sealing Waxes Message-Id: TM> "All crypto is economics," and this is what made seals and sealing wax so TM> useful for so long. Saying "seals were duplicatable from the start" does TM> not mean this feat was easy, even if technically possible. TM> In fact, the fine details produced by a good seal are hard to exactly TM> emulate with a copy. Even on a two-dimensional surface. And with the advent TM> of three-dimensional surfaces, which sealing wax made possible, the fine TM> detail of a good seal was in fact very hard to forge. TM> Not impossible, but very costly with the technology of the day. Or even the TM> technology of _today_. After all, paper currency is largely based on seal TM> technology, with various embossing, printing, etc. methods used (on special TM> paper) that remain fairly hard to duplicate. true. thanks for the reminder of seals. i need to work this analogy into my current 'lecture' on the usefullness of encryption. _puzzle palace_ makes reference to british intellegence making use of people trained into the use of people trained to reproduce seals. this is something for us to look out for from the fine folx at nsa. if there is a way to spoof signatures (as mentioned in another thread recently), they will be perfecting and perhaps using these methods if they feel the need is great enough. i promote encryption using pgp with a lot of stress on the privacy and veracity of documents in business settings. how strong is the hash used by pgp? do you think it will eventually be hashed out in the courts in our favour?(pun semi-intended) i'd like digital signatures w/verifiable timestamps be recognised in a court of law. i don't know of any cases revolving around this issue. if anyone out there knows of one, i'd be interested in hearing of it so i can track it's progress. btw: though it is a pain sometimes to weed the noise off this list due to my (very) limited net access, it has proved to be an excellent resource. my thanks to the regulars. - --if i could code worth a damn i'd be a cypherpunk amp <0003701548@mcimail.com> February 7, 1995 22:17 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.61 iQEVAwUBLzgN4CgP1O9KJoPBAQETZQf/WAY0I+fvEmevc7iwfVglqjIZ26zDnc33 p8Yjc+uQfagS0wavYLpN+OxMphpdUHHjycb98aYLDax8CUW3iDJ54tZKVnQT3pPx 9+v1gq38UbP8k7hvoGl5lIltmMJ/rMl2lZU87l2biYjmQq8n9S+mMoIOAatcmboG 6JQ4MEsNnZvsQVeaZm87qOGqfkeTbzwsBfz8LjLkgnv7TLUNn5wJgMgiC+apYC0V bJfAHWce3UGEPlaa4JHBbCRyfrC/hk1ggrYKthxHKE+Ceep1O2k7fRkX/tCC2BZC UaY8ZjogZKZJbfdDNmlG7fBN5EBWlj6Mj9Ti2SRYlx4q8lwSHad+gg== =HeNj -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----