Re: NIST GAK export meeting, short version

["Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@netcom.com>]

Just a quick note to explain what the govies claimed was the reason for
the SECRET clearence....

They claimed it was needed so that they can serve a court order
that is SECRET. Obviously, if the order is classified, then no one
without clearence can see it -- the existance of the clearence
is classified.

The main area that they claimed was for FISA orders. FISA stands
for something like Foriegn Intellegence Survellance Act. It is
aimed at catching spies.

The whole topic raises a ton of questions, such as traffic
analysis when your _only_ cleared operator has to process
a request. Plus, since you have to be a US citizen to get
a clearence, how can there be approved foriegn escrow agents?

And the usual, why in hell would a competent spy use
crypto escrowed in the US?

I'll put more in the long report.

Pat

Pat Farrell    Grad Student      http://www.isse.gmu.edu/students/pfarrell
Info. Systems & Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
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