Re: [IRS] Elvis in Escrow

At  4:40 AM 4/16/96 -0700, Dave Del Torto wrote:
>[from SF Examiner somewhere around 12-14 April 96]
>
>..............................................................................
>
>"IRS Worker Took Peek at Celebrities' Records"
>[Associated Press]
>  Memphis - A former IRS employee who said boredom had led him to peek at
>the tax records of President Clinton, Elvis Presley and other famous people
>has been acquitted of federal charges.
>
>
>
>Hmmm. _We_ do it, it's "malicious cracking/hacking" and they toss us in the
>clink... _they_ do it, and it's "practice" (and they get acquitted). And
>_these_ are the people who want to escrow _my_ keys? As IF!

I wonder, how much is NSA's secret key worth?  You know, the one they use
to grab the extra key bits that Lotus Notes sends them.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz       | The CDA means  | Periwinkle  --  Computer Consulting
(408)356-8506     | lost jobs and  | 16345 Englewood Ave.
frantz@netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

>  I wonder, how much is NSA's secret key worth?  You know, the
>  one they use to grab the extra key bits that Lotus Notes sends
>  them.

Does anyone know how many bits it is?  If it is 512 or less it may be a good  
candidate for a public key factoring.


andrew

Andrew Loewenstern wrote:

| >  I wonder, how much is NSA's secret key worth?  You know, the
| >  one they use to grab the extra key bits that Lotus Notes sends
| >  them.
| 
| Does anyone know how many bits it is?  If it is 512 or less it may
| be a good candidate for a public key factoring.

	Legally, I don't know that they can export software that
handles keys longer than 512 bits.  Wait! I forgot! They are the brute
squad.

	More seriously, if they did export an API (even a private one)
that can handle keys longer than 512 bits, perhaps we could find that
out and publish information on using the NSA-strength crypto from
Notes applications.

Adam


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

On Tue, 16 Apr 1996, Bill Frantz wrote:

> At  4:40 AM 4/16/96 -0700, Dave Del Torto wrote:
> >[from SF Examiner somewhere around 12-14 April 96]
> >
> >..............................................................................
> >
> >"IRS Worker Took Peek at Celebrities' Records"
> >[Associated Press]
> >  Memphis - A former IRS employee who said boredom had led him to peek at
> >the tax records of President Clinton, Elvis Presley and other famous people
> >has been acquitted of federal charges.
> >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"acquitted" here may mean that cypherpunks were on the trial jury.

If the "fix" was in, as Dave seems to imply, there never would've been a 
trial.

EBD




> >
> >Hmmm. _We_ do it, it's "malicious cracking/hacking" and they toss us in the
> >clink... _they_ do it, and it's "practice" (and they get acquitted). And
> >_these_ are the people who want to escrow _my_ keys? As IF!
> 
> I wonder, how much is NSA's secret key worth?  You know, the one they use
> to grab the extra key bits that Lotus Notes sends them.
> 
> 
> Bill Frantz       | The CDA means  | Periwinkle  --  Computer Consulting
> frantz@netcom.com | dead teenagers | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA




Not a lawyer on the Net, although I play one in real life.
**********************************************************
Flame away! I get treated worse in person every day!!