The Report -- The Day the Earth Stood Still

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

"Just 15 more days until the NRC report is released...."

"Only 12 days until we release the NRC report...."

"Since there are only 8 days left, you might want to place your order for
the NRC report now..."

"Only 7 more days..."

Personally, I think we're getting entirely too many update reports on when
The Report is coming. Just release the damned thing, so we can reject it
forthwith.

(If it needs being rejected....)

At 3:28 PM 5/25/96, Thaddeus J. Beier wrote:
>I asked Peter Neumann, of the NRC commission whose report is due
>very very soon, and they did indeed get "The Briefing".  He was
>very keen to have all appendices of the final report be public,
>we may get to see the story there.
>
>I am just on pins and needles waiting for the report.  I thought,
>when it was announced, that in the year-and-a-half that it would take
>to write that the war would be won.  It hasn't, of course.  I think
>that the NRC report will define the landscape of the debate for the
>next year or so.  We'll see.


It's risky for me to even speculate what's in this report, but a look at
who's on the panel raises my eyebrows. (Many of the panel members were at
the CFP '95, in San Francisco, and listened to public input from a crowd of
agitated Cypherpunks and others. From their questions, many of them were
clearly skeptical of the views expressed from the floor. Some of them
couched their points in terms of that magic code phrase, "the legitimate
needs of law enforcement," so draw your own conclusions.)

Maybe their report will call for unlimited strength crypto to be freely
available to all citizens (as it is now, legally), free export of said
crypto (as it not now), no restrictions on digital money, and no mention of
"key escrow" whatsoever (as there should not be, as "key escrow" is not an
issue for governments to get involved in).

Maybe.

But color me a bit skeptical, given their inside-the-Beltway focus.

And don't forget that Ray Ozzie, the esteemed developer of Lotus Notes
(Iris Associates, connected with Lotus, and now IBM), is on the panel. He
got all the various briefings, I presume. His response? Don't forget that
he announced that Lotus Notes and such products would implement the "40 +
24 Solution," with 24 bits of a 64-bit key given to the government, leaving
users with a trivially-crackable 40-bit key.

This from one of the most technically-up-to-date members of the panel....

I'm holding my breath....

"Remember, there are only 5 days left until the release of The Report. Set
your watches, program your Newtons, and plan your affairs accordingly."


--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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