Re: Modems that variate speed

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

> Then the efforts would be wasted. Hmmm... There has to be a way to keep 
> people from snooping on our lines. I guess PGP and other methods like it 
> will be the only way...
> 
> Aaron


End-to-end security, such as with ciphers, is infinitely preferable to
kludges and half-hearted attempts at security through obscurity such
as making modem tapping every so slightly harder than it is now.

Tricks like modem speed varying would be cumbersome to implement,
would require pre-arrangement of the pattern to be used, etc. Just not
very strong. (A bit like frequency-hopping/spread-spectrum, which has
aspects of crypto systems, as I'm sure Phil Karn can tell us about.
But at best a one-time pad and at worst a weak cipher.)

End-to-end encryption is much cleaner, stronger, and allows the public
key methods of incalculable importance. 

--Tim May


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