To: ftth who wrote (14559 ) 4/10/2006 3:06:44 PM From: shades Respond to of 46821 This power to “sniff” enemy network traffic is almost nonexistent in current military force structure, but a shift in thinking is underway." schneier.com The last time this sort of thing came up, the U.S. government tried to sell us something called "key escrow." Basically, the government likes the idea of everyone using encryption, as long as it has a copy of the key. This is an amazingly insecure idea for a number of reasons, mostly boiling down to the fact that when you provide a means of access into a security system, you greatly weaken its security. A recent case in Greece demonstrated that perfectly: Criminals used a cell-phone eavesdropping mechanism already in place, designed for the police to listen in on phone calls. Had the call system been designed to be secure in the first place, there never would have been a backdoor for the criminals to exploit.schneier.com The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third-Party Encryption H. Abelson, R. Anderson, S. Bellovin, J. Benaloh, M. Blaze, W. Diffie, J. Gilmore, P. Neumann, R. Rivest, J. Schiller, B. Schneier ABSTRACT: A variety of "key recovery," "key escrow," and "trusted third-party" encryption requirements have been suggested in recent years by government agencies seeking to conduct covert surveillance within the changing environments brought about by new technologies. This report examines the fundamental properties of these requirements and attempts to outline the technical risks, costs, and implications of deploying systems that provide government access to encryption keys. Revised 1998 version Go watch bullocks - THE NET again - it popularizes the REASON this NEW THINKING is a REALLY BAD idea.imdb.com