Re: CLIPPER COMPROMIZED?

[sommerfeld@orchard.medford.ma.us (Bill Sommerfeld)]

Ok, so we have a wire service report citing unnamed sources that the
gov't is trying to find out if Ames could have had access to Clipper,
and Denning citing unnamed sources that Ames probably didn't have
access to Clipper...

IMHO, that's roughly a tie in the credibility race, especially given
Denning's known biases on the matter.

At this stage in the clipper deployment, it would not be hard for them
to "recall" all the outstanding clipper/capstone/etc. chips for an,
umm, "bug fix", which installed a new set of S-boxes & a new family
key.

In any event, anyone who had compromised clipper would be a fool to
show his hand now.. it would make a lot more sense to wait until
deployment was seriously under way, and clipperphones had gotten into
the hands (& electron microscopes :-) ) of at least some anti-clipper
activists... that way, it would be impossible for the gov't to dismiss
such a compromise as a hoax.

					- Bill