A Snake-Oil FAQ

[Adam Shostack]

Good faqs have pointers to other good sources of information, even
when they're pretty near authoritative.  I'd point to Schneier,
Rivest, and Blaze as people whose endorsements carry real weight, and
point to the sci.crypt faq for more info.

Other than that, it looked like a good start.  I look forward to being
able to point people to it.

Adam

Deranged Mutant wrote:

| I've written a short "Snake Oil FAQ" below.  It's incomplete and 
| needs some work (adding a few definitions, rewording, aesthetic 
| formatting, etc.), so think of it as a 'beta' FAQ (please don't post 
| it on web pages, though I don't mind if it's distributed among 
| anyone interested in criticizing or contributing).   Comments and
| suggestions would be appreciated.   Note that the aim is to write
| something  accessible to 'newbies'.  (Jeremy Barrett contributed to
| this, BTW)

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume