Markoff in NYT on NTT/RSA chip

Heh. You read it first in the CyberWire Dispatch Brock and I put out 
earlier tonight. :)

-Declan

---

Japanese Data-Scrambling Chip Renews Debate

      By JOHN MARKOFF
      
     
     
     
     
     W ASHINGTON -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has quietly
     begun selling a powerful data-scrambling chip set that is likely to
     undermine the Clinton administration's efforts to restrict the
     export of the fundamental technology for protecting secrets and
     commerce in the information age.
     
     The existence of the two-chip set, which will have broad potential
     application for local computer networks, the Internet and telephone
     switching networks, was disclosed in Washington in a speech Monday
     at a public policy workshop by the chief executive of RSA Data
     Security, a Silicon Valley-based company that has frequently dueled
     with the administration over its export-control policies.
     

[...]

There are still a few unclear (to me) points about this story:

1. CWD says that RSA's Japanese subsidiary developed the chips. Markoff
says NTT did. It sounds to me like NTT is the more likely developer, since
they have a great deal of silicon design experience.

2. Markoff's story says that NTT doesn't have licenses to use RSA
technology (the quote from Junichi Kishigami), but the bit about safely
swapping private-key info makes me wonder if instead they're using DH-- the
patent for which expires next year. A telecom chipset could make productive
use of DH for key exchange at call setup.

3. Once you import an ITAR item, its export becomes controlled. Importing
the NTT chipset for use, say, in a Motorola cell switch (made in IL) would
seem to be problematic. Buying chips in Japan for shipment to Moto's phone
factories in Singapore and Malaysia, however, would appear to be OK. Under
the present export regs, it's not clear to me how many US manufacturers
would adopt this chipset since it doesn't give them any export relief. If
the NRC's recommendations are adopted, that still won't help, since
triple-DES is over their recommended limit.

The _good_ news is that US manufacturers could put these chipsets into
domestic-only products, and I sincerely hope they will.

-Paul


--
Paul Robichaux                    LJL Enterprises, Inc.
paul@ljl.com                      Be a cryptography user. Ask me how.

jonathon writes:

 > 	<< Any guesses on just how long ITAR stays around, once
 > 	several companies announce they are terminating the employment
 > 	of 1000+ people, for work overseas, because of ITAR?  >> 

You're assuming that the "jobs" card beats the "crypto-terrorist"
card.  I wouldn't count on it.

-russ <nelson@crynwr.com>    http://www.crynwr.com/~nelson
Crynwr Software   | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | PGP ok
11 Grant St.      | +1 315 268 1925 voice | It's no mistake to err on
Potsdam, NY 13676 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX   | the side of freedom.

David Lesher writes:

 > So Motorboatarola puts chips in the domestic MTSO's. 
 > For the international ones, they leave the chips out.

Crypto hooks, or more properly, crypto pads.  Lends new meaning to the
term "one time pads".

-russ <nelson@crynwr.com>    http://www.crynwr.com/~nelson
Crynwr Software   | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | PGP ok
11 Grant St.      | +1 315 268 1925 voice | It's no mistake to err on
Potsdam, NY 13676 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX   | the side of freedom.

> 
> 
> 3. Once you import an ITAR item, its export becomes controlled. Importing
> the NTT chipset for use, say, in a Motorola cell switch (made in IL) would
> seem to be problematic. Buying chips in Japan for shipment to Moto's phone
> factories in Singapore and Malaysia, however, would appear to be OK. 

So Motorboatarola puts chips in the domestic MTSO's. 
For the international ones, they leave the chips out.

If the local service agency in Freedonia wants to buy the chips
from Japan & install them themselves, what can IL say?



-- 
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

paul:

On Tue, 4 Jun 1996, Paul Robichaux wrote:
> the NTT chipset for use, say, in a Motorola cell switch (made in IL) would
> seem to be problematic. Buying chips in Japan for shipment to Moto's phone
> factories in Singapore and Malaysia, however, would appear to be OK. Under

	So the companies simply ship their _entire_ production 
	facility offshore, to whichever country has no crypto 
	export regulations.

	<< Any guesses on just how long ITAR stays around, once
	several companies announce they are terminating the employment
	of 1000+ people, for work overseas, because of ITAR?  >> 

	And doing all of their manufacturing offshore means they could
	use Triple-DES, or BlowFish, or any other crypto algorithm.

        xan

        jonathon
        grafolog@netcom.com


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