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The dumbest question...




... is the one you don't ask. So here I go...


#1

Isn't "part of the deal" of patent granting a requirement that the 
details of the thing being patented be revealed. If so, why isn't IBM 
required to reveal the details of s-box design? After all, they hold the 
patent on DES.

#2

Skipjack has a 80 bit key which is proposed to be "escrowed" in two parts.
Now considering that the likeliest attack on DES is a brute force key 
search of 2^55 keys, isn't it true that a compromise of one half of a 
"Clipper key" would allow a brute force attack to "discover the remaining 
40 bits. If 2^55 is possible, then 2^40 is even easier, no? 


Brian