British Ministers Adopt Unbreakable Crypto

Bruce Schneier schneier at counterpane.com
Mon Jan 19 13:47:07 PST 1998



> 
>LONDON (AP) -- It's a briefcase even James Bond could love.
> 
>Britain's more adventurous Cabinet ministers soon will be spiriting
>laptop computers inside their signature ``Red Box'' briefcases,
>complete with fingerprint recognition systems and silent alarms.
>
[.....]
>
>``There is even a duress finger,'' Rushworth said. ``That is for if a
>terrorist or gunman has a gun to the minister's head forcing him to
>open the computer. It will appear to function normally but doesn't,
>and sends a silent alarm to the Cabinet Office.''

This is INSANE.  How could someone be so stupid as to announce
such a feature in a newspaper.  I guess this means that if a
terrorist sees a Cabinet minister with such a computer, he had
better shoot to kill.

The whole point of a feature like this is that its existence is secret.
Someone is NOT paying attention.

Bruce
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Bruce Schneier, President, Counterpane Systems     Phone: 612-823-1098
101 E Minnehaha Parkway, Minneapolis,MN  55419       Fax: 612-823-1590
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