The GAK Momentum is Building...

At 1:59 AM 9/17/96, David Lesher wrote:
>Clarinet sez:
>
>OTTAWA, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The federal government has chosen
>Northern Telecom's data security software, Entrust { } Public-Key
>Infrastructure (PKI)... for gov't use.....
>
>worth $7.3 million......

Add to this these items:

-- the IBM GAK product

-- the "Clipper IV" (or is it only Clipper III?) GAK announcement expected
"soon"


It seems that several of these announcements are happening at the same
time, which I doubt is coincidental. As the Republican challenger (whose
name escapes me at the moment :-}) is not making an issue out of this, and
is not making any issues out of anything related to liberty issues as near
as I can tell, Clinton and the national security establishment seem to have
free rein (and reign) to deploy GAK>

As Lucky pointed out, GAK now appears inevitable. There's probably still
time to monkeywrench these schemes, though. A few Blaze- or
Wagner/Goldberg-type hacks could undermine confidence in the Key Authority
(not to be confused with the Port Authority, which I presume handles i/o
port assignments).

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

On Mon, 16 Sep 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
> 
> -- the "Clipper IV" (or is it only Clipper III?) GAK announcement expected
> "soon"

Its Clipper IV. It will take the form of a bill introduced by the USG later
this Fall.

> It seems that several of these announcements are happening at the same
> time, which I doubt is coincidental.

Nothing coincidental about it. The USG, through its front man Al Gore, 
has used time honored "divide and conquer" techniques to get the industry 
leaders to support their fascist agenda by promising to let them off 
easy under the future rules. For crying out loud, CyberCash, to give one 
example, touts in all their recent presentations how they have compliance 
with regulations that don't even exist yet built into their system.

Meanwhile, HP, TIS, IBM, and others have made a deal to sell their 
children's birthright for fast track single DES export.

I read some five newspaper articles on export control/GAK in the last few 
days. All mentioned as a matter of fact that GAK will be part of 
lightened export controls. None questioned the connection between 
domestic GAK and foreign exports. The worst of these articles, in the 
Sunday SF Chronicle, mentioned as the only defenders of non-GAK 
encryption hackers by the name of "Black Knight", etc. who were quoted as 
having no explanation for the dichotomy between "information wants to be 
free" and "I don't want the Feds to read my email".

It is a done deal,

--Lucky, who told you this three years ago.

again, more black/white cpunk thought that goes along the lines,
"unless we have won everything, we have lost everything".

you guys are awfully cynical. clipper has failed its original
objectives by miles. the last-ditch efforts by bureacrats to
get some semblance of "key escrow" from recent developments
are increasingly pathetic.

I'd say the significant dilution of clipper over the years
is a very strong victory for pro-privacy, pro-cryptography
advocates.

the Clipper proposals are increasingly moving into the
area of "key management". large companies will always
want key management features, to deal with employees who
forget passwords, leave the company, etc.-- face it, this
is a simple reality. essentially all the latest
moves amount to, imho, is the government trying to get
its fingers into these key management infrastructures.

so the recent stuff that is emerging, I would hesitate
to call "gak". it sounds more like "gaki", or government
access to key infrastructures. these infrastructures are
going to be built up regardless of what cpunks wish-- 
private businesses simply must have them. frankly all it
looks like to me is the government saying, "we reserve
the right to subpoena keys". this will always be the case.
bureacrats are always trying to pass new laws when old
ones already apply.

>It is a done deal,
>--Lucky, who told you this three years ago.

again, more simplistic summaries. there is a whole range of
evil proposals that the government could be involved in, and
we have to begin to discriminate between them. the government
could be the sole manager of all key infrastructures and the
entity that licenses all crypto for any use-- that
I would consider total worse case reality.  or the government
could have tentacles stuck into key infrastructures that
businesses build up. the latter is not quite as odious or
threatening. in fact it simply sounds like the government
saying, "we reserve the right to subpoena keys". (of course
the latter could always evolve into the former. I suppose
the cynics would contend that it is inevitable.)