Cpunks Lauded

[John Young]

A local NYC TV show, The Digital Age, today had David 
Kahn and Steve Levy discussing crypto, bin Laden and 
911 with the show's host, James Goodale, former 
vice-chairman of the New York Times.

The topic was what role encryption may have played
in 911.

Steve was persuasive in noting that crypto should not
be singled out as a lethal technology for terrorism any
more than other technology that could be put to malign
uses.

Cypherpunks got a plug from Steve for making encryption
"hip." Though Goodale attempted to get Steve to agree
that it was not a good thing for crypto to be liberated from
government control, Steve wouldn't buy that, and he credited
cypherpunks with a principal role in popularizing and spreading 
the technology, along with Phil Zimmermann's PGP effort. 

David Kahn agreed with Steve that there was nothing that could 
be done about loss of government control of encryption, the 
technology was out there for all to use for good or bad purposes.

David reaffirmed his belief that key escrow would have
been best for the country's security, but now it was no 
longer possible. (We heard David state that a few years
back at a crypto conference in NYC.)

David was emphatic that public key cryptography is the
single most important invention in the entire history of
cryptography. Diffie and Hellman were cited, but not
the British predecessors.