Re: Crypto's Role in Evil?

[Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>]

Timothy C. May wrote:

| this being a strong cryptography group, this is a good time to mention to
| newcomers to the list that the book "Snow Crash," by Neal Stephenson,
| offers a wickedly satirical look at a possible future for America.

	Speaking of Stephenson, he views the Snow Crash future as not
a particularly bad one.  Sure, some of the companies are evil, but
they are not so evil, or as powerful, as governments have been this
century.

	Also, Klaus, I'll offer up the following data on
Iboviroxinase-D.  LD-50 of 490mg in 20 male subjects aged 16-28.
Subjects were paid volunteers.  Releases included in study.  Onset
time of les than one minute from administration of last dose.  Doses
were administrated intraveneously every 4 minutes as 50mg of
Iboviroxinase-D in saline solution.  Complete study will be encrypted
to you on the payment of $35,000 to our account.

	While medical data based on various studies will probably
become available, there will also be a value to forging such studies
(after all, how is Tim to know?  (Its worth a bit of time for $35,000
to see if Tim can tell the difference.)  Also, expect police to be
engaging in undercover work to try to find people who buy these
things.

	Encryption is not a cure all for criminals.  It makes some
things easier to do, but if the number of crimes drops down to murder,
kidnapping, theft and rape, the police will have the time to track
down people who kidnap 20 people for a toxicity study.  (And good
studies will probably take more people than that; partly because its
not a refined science, partly because people are so variable.)

Adam

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume