Where are the cryptographers going to come from?

[nelson@crynwr.com]

 > >----- Forwarded Cyberia-L message (DAVID POST <postd@EROLS.COM>) -----< 

 > Someone else pointed to a recent story in the Economist, which
 > listed the leading encryption software/services companies
 > worldwide, each of which is Israeli.
 > 
 > Bidzos made the claim, and many others echoed, that the export
 > controls are in the process of doing nothing more than ceding a
 > potentially lucrative market to others, a market in which the US
 > might otherwise be expected to be the dominant player.  It may
 > even, in the eyes of some, be too late to undo this damage.

Not only that, but where are the cryptographers of the future going to
come from for the NSA to recruit?  Israel??  Oh right, foreign
nationals privy to our own highest secrets, give me a break.  Do they
intend to train them themselves?  If so, that's identical in principle
to universities granting tenure to their own graduates.  You get
inbred that way, so universities don't do that.

The principle behind crypto secrecy presumes that other people don't
have the secret.  Once they do, you only hurt yourself by trying to
keep a double-edged sword in the closet.  The NSA believes that they
can and should discard any amount of benefits of crypto in exchange
for avoiding any harm of crypto.  They are wrong.

-russ <nelson@crynwr.com>    http://www.crynwr.com/~nelson
Crynwr Software   | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | PGP ok
11 Grant St.      | +1 315 268 1925 voice | It's no mistake to err on
Potsdam, NY 13676 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX   | the side of freedom.