Re: The public sees no need for crypto at this time

At 10:25 AM 11/21/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
>I believe that at this time the differential market value to customers of
>having strong crypto in telephones is near-zero, and in cell-phones is only
>slightly greater. [reasoning deleted].

I generally agree with Tim about consumers.  However, I remember working on
a theater production where we were using Radio Shack 2-way headphones for
communication.  One day while we were setting up, we were able to overhear
a woman discussing (presumably with a girlfriend) her boyfriend and their
sex life over a portable telephone.  You can bet that every available
headset was in use and all other work stopped.

Where I think there is a market and an awareness of a need is in the
corporate world.  I recently saw a corporate security policy which
specifically restricted discussing classified information on portable or
cell phones.  If I were in France (to pick on just one guilty country), I
would not want to discuss secrets involving competitive position vs. a
French company on a landline connection.  The big driving force for
companies is how much the facility costs.  (I recently heard a price of
$700 for non-crypto phones.)  If the cost is low enough, company employees
will have these boxes in their homes.

The other big obstacle is standards.  As far as I can tell, every crypto
phone has its own protocol.  If there were a standard set of protocols, it
would greatly help the market, as it has for so many other products.  As a
first step, I suggest that Eric Blossom and PGP Inc. work together to
develop a mode where their products can communicate with each other.


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frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz) writes:

> At 10:25 AM 11/21/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
> >I believe that at this time the differential market value to customers of
> >having strong crypto in telephones is near-zero, and in cell-phones is only
> >slightly greater. [reasoning deleted].
>
> I generally agree with Tim about consumers.  However, I remember working on
> a theater production where we were using Radio Shack 2-way headphones for
> communication.  One day while we were setting up, we were able to overhear
> a woman discussing (presumably with a girlfriend) her boyfriend and their
> sex life over a portable telephone.  You can bet that every available
> headset was in use and all other work stopped.

So - get a scanner (which may be illegal), put a horny kid to transcribe
whatever you hear, and post it to usenet via the anonymous remailers.

That'll catch the media's attention.

> Where I think there is a market and an awareness of a need is in the
> corporate world.  I recently saw a corporate security policy which
> specifically restricted discussing classified information on portable or
> cell phones.  If I were in France (to pick on just one guilty country), I
> would not want to discuss secrets involving competitive position vs. a
> French company on a landline connection.  The big driving force for
> companies is how much the facility costs.  (I recently heard a price of
> $700 for non-crypto phones.)  If the cost is low enough, company employees
> will have these boxes in their homes.
>
> The other big obstacle is standards.  As far as I can tell, every crypto
> phone has its own protocol.  If there were a standard set of protocols, it
> would greatly help the market, as it has for so many other products.  As a
> first step, I suggest that Eric Blossom and PGP Inc. work together to
> develop a mode where their products can communicate with each other.

I've been on the Internet for close to 15 years. I used to tell people how
wonderful it is and how they should use it at least for e-mail. And they'd
say to me, most of the people they want to talk to either don't use e-mail
or are on systems not connected to the Internet back then, like Compuserve.
And they were right at that time.

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Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps