Some thoughts on the Chinese Net

[Jon Lasser]

On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Carl Ellison wrote:

> >The more complex portion (from my perspective, at any rate) is a
> >modification of the standard TCP/IP protocol, requiring that each packet
> >be signed by its originating user.
> 
> That's the killer.  Signatures take a huge amount of CPU time.  Signing
> each packet is not going to be cost effective.

Yep; this has been pointed out to me already. On this point I concur. 

> However, they could have an authenticated key exchange and then symmetric-
> encrypt each TCP/IP connection.  That can perform -- and has the nice
> side effect [from the Chinese POV] of depriving the NSA of Chinese civilian
> net intelligence.  As long as the key exchange is signed, everything
> travelling using that key is authenticated implicitly.

How would packets coming into the country be marked / passed on?

So it seems that, in general, the Chinese supression of the net is 
possible. A frightening thought. Or, if you think about potential 
implications 10 yrs down the road here, a sobering thought.

Jon
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Jon Lasser (410)494-3072                         - Obscenity  is a crutch  for
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