PGP, Network Associates, KRAP, and Dead Rebels

[Tim May]

At 4:01 PM -0700 12/5/97, Adam Back wrote:

>Wesley Griffin <wgriffin at enslaved.student.umd.edu> writes:
>> > By "companies like Network Associates", do you mean "companies who are
>> > members of the Key Recovery Alliance" (http://www.kra.org)? If so,
>>here are
>> > the "companies like Network Associates", in that regard:  [Note RSA is a
>> > Charter Member]
>>
>> This statement is seriously confusing Key Recovery and Key Escrow.
>> They are NOT the same thing.  Everybody knows what Key *Escrow* is
>> and that it sucks.
>
>You need to understand Newspeak to understand any crypto documents
>written by the government, or government toadies.
>
>To them the key recovery, key escrow are just different PR terms to
>try to con people into going along with goverment backdoors in crypto
>software.

Yep. KRAP is just a variant of GAK. The talk about "court orders" shows the
equivalence.

There are subtle differences between various GAK schemes, ranging from the
extreme of encrypting all communications and writings to a government key
(an obvious non-starter) to the complicated LEAF stuff of Clipper to the
more recent key escrow and KRAP schemes. Including that being pushed by
PGP, Inc., er, "Network Associates."

When the Key Recovery Alliance speaks of "legal court orders" for gaining
access to KRAPped communications, one assumes this means the official
government of Myanmar (Burma) will be using "legal court orders" to gain
access to rebel communications.

Next time Phil Z. speaks about the great usefullness of PGP in supporting
freedom fighters in Myanmar, I hope he remembers to mention that Network
Associates is committed to giving governments access to such
communications. Provided the right legal orders are given, of course.

It might be a nice gesture for Phil to fly to Rangoon to attend the
funerals of the freedom fighters rounded up after their KRAP-compliant
communications are decrypted  by the Ministry of Social Harmony (with the
right court orders, of course...wouldn't want KRAP to let unauthorized
decryptions occur, would we?).

The whole _point_ of encryption is to stop this kind of snooping. This is
why we provided PGP to the freedom fighters working to expel the Zionists
into the sea (though the Amerikan government calls these freedom fighters
"terrorists," of course). And why White Aryan Resistance now uses PGP.

(The point of crypto is that you can't pick who gets to use it and who
doesn't.)

With its 5.5 version, and especially with its absorbtion into Big
Brotherish Network Associates, PGP has taken a major step toward
irrelevance, and even perniciousness.

This won't endear myself to Phil and my other colleagues at PGP, Inc. But I
have to call it as I see it. Would they want me to pull my punches? The
Phil Zimmermann I met several years ago surely would've spoken out against
such things. In fact, he did. As recently as a year ago, in articles
condemning ViaCrypt for its key recovery/escrow system.

And, ironically, some of the things he blasted RSADSI for, such as charging
for its crypto products, and not releasing a toolkit usable by all (RSAREF
was for hobbyist uses only, much like the freeware versions of PGP), have
close parallels with PGP, Inc.'s current views about charging for products,
development toolkits, and so on. And, worse, PGP is "building in Big
Brother," and when Network Associates finishes absorbing them....

Oh well. Earlier versions of PGP, and monkeywrenched versions of later
versions of PGP, may be our best hope.

(I can't say this will do a lot for sales of commericial versions, as we
urge folks to widely deploy older, non-KRAP versions.)

--Tim May


The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."