Comments from Jim Bidzos, Pres. of RSA Data Security

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Jim Bidzos, Pres. of RSA Data Security, sent me a nice note this evening in
response to my posting on sci.crypt. In that post, I suggested that only
RSA has the algorithms and protocols ready to go for an alternative to
Clipper, and that perhaps we should set aside our differences with RSA
(over patents on software, etc.) and instead seek an alliance.

Basically, Jim said he knew *nothing* of Clipper until he read about it in
the Friday morning papers!!  If true, this is astounding. (And having met
Jim several times, I believe him.)

He's also preparing a FAQ entitled "RSA/PKP/Clipper Flap FAQ" to deal with
the many questions raised.

Jim has some interesting theories about the motivations for Clipper, and
why AT&T was so quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Please don't quote my comments in public discussions of this issue (Jim
asked me not to, which is why I'm being vaguely elliptic here.)

This is all I can say for now, but I remain convinced that RSA was not
involved (I suspect the presence of "jim@rsa.com" on the NIST mailing list,
as reported in this group by a couple of folks, is not necessarily the
cabal that put Clipper together).

Interesting times indeed!

-Tim May
--
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