BYTE Clipper article (newsbite)

[fergp@sytex.com (Paul Ferguson)]

Okay, here's another one. This time its Peter Wayner in the pages
of BYTE magazine (volume 18, number 8, July 1993).
 
8<------ Article follows -------------
 
BYTE Magazine
July 1993
page 36
News & Views; Data Security
 
Clipped Wings?
 
Encryption Chip Draws Fire
 
Part of the Clinton administration's vision for a digital America
is a fast encryption chip to help companies and individuals
protect their secrets from prying eyes as voice and data messages
are sent over communications wires. The catch is that this
encryption chip includes a backdoor that will let
law-enforcement agencies listen in. The White House believes that
the hardware will protect all Americans' right to privacy while
also protecting them from those who break the law.
 
The chip is named Clipper (because Intergraph in Huntsville,
Alabama, manufactures a processor with the same name, the Clipper
moniker will likely be changed). It is a 12 Mbps encryption
coprocessor designed by Mykotronx (Torrance, CA) and manufactured
by VLSI (San Jose, CA). The chip is built in a tamper-resistant
package to prevent reverse-engineering efforts to reveal the
classified algorithm used inside.
 
Along with privacy concerns that the government could abuse its
ability to tap digital wires, another impediment to widespread
acceptance of Clipper will be its cost. Ben Stolz, a member of
the technical staff at Sun Microsystems (Mountain View, CA),
says, "Our rule of thumb is that a part that costs n dollars adds
3n to 4n dollars to the final price [of a computer]." Raymond
Kammer, acting director of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (Gaithersburg, MD), recently told a U.S.
congressional committee that he hopes the Mykotronx chips will
eventually cost $26 each if purchased in large quantities. That
means a potential $75 to $100 addition to the price of each
computer that uses the chip.
 
Critics of the Clipper chip note that less expensive chips that
provide DES encryption have not received widespread acceptance
because software encryption, although usually slower than
hardware, is less expensive. Jim Bidzos, president of RSA Data
Securities (Redwood City, CA), says, "This is just another arrow
aimed at preventing people from using RSA." RSA's cryptographic
routines will be included in new releases of system software
written by Apple and Novell and are already used in Lotus Notes.
 
The government will undoubtedly provide a large market for the
Clipper chip initially. President Clinton has already directed
the U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to purchase several thousand
units for use in computers and secure phones. The impact of the
chip on the rest of the world, though, will be governed by
economics.
 

Paul Ferguson               |  "Confidence is the feeling you get
Network Integrator          |   just before you fully understand
Centreville, Virginia USA   |   the problem."
fergp@sytex.com             |      - Murphy's 7th Law of Computing
 
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