Re: iPower card info from NatSemi

[Matt Blaze <mab@crypto.com>]

>iPower: The Card That Ate Your Privacy
>
>I got a "Technology Fact Sheet" on the National Semiconductor iPower
>(Tessera) card today. It's pretty grim. They have big plans for this
>little monster, which go way beyond just tapping the telephones of a
>few Mafiosi. It's too long to key in the whole thing - if you want one,
>call them at 1-800-272-9959. They are very helpful. Here are a few
>interesting excerpts:

My understanding is that NSC plans to release a Tessera version for
the federal market and a DES version for the rest of us.  This is probably
reasonable - the federal (defense message system) Tessera market is pretty
big.  I don't know if they actually got the federal contract; I seem
to recal hearing last week that the DoD contract for Tessera cards went to
someone else, but I don't remember who.

BTW, I've been playing with a prototype Tessera card for the last couple
of weeks; cute little thing.  Comments to follow shortly...

-matt