Politech mailing list archives
FC: Network Associates 'fesses up to PGP backdoor, or maybe not
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 12:45:55 -0500
[Network Associates owns PGP. A representative of Network Associates' French subsidiary recently 'fessed up to a backdoor for the French government while on TV. Network Associates USA says their tech-clueless rep was talking about the firm's obligation to provide the source code to the French -- an uninteresting requirement, since PGP's source is freely available. Thanks to Jean-Marc Manach for forwarding what appears to be confusion. --Declan]
********** Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 15:06:46 +0100 From: jmm <jmm () free fr> X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.49) Personal To: declan () well com Subject: There's a backdoor in PGP, said the french NAI representative... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-UIDL: 2a9a46011e11ee191773d47ac1040654 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 'lo-o a few months ago, you quoted a paper I wrote about a french hacker sued by an antiterrorist judge. http://www.transfert.net/fr/cyber_societe/article.cfm?idx_rub=87&idx_art=1685 the guy is still awaiting the trial, and there's another story right now which could interest you & your readers. Last week, a official spokesman of Network Associates France told a TV journalist that the french government, plus, probably, the german and the american ones, has the deciphering keys for PGP... Une "Pretty Good Plaisanterie" which doesn't seem to make french cryptographers laugh. Regards, jmm False alarm for PGP par Jean-Marc Manach mis en ligne le 23 janvier 2001 The French government allegedly planted a backdoor in PGP, the most widespread of cryptographic software... This so-called "scoop", revealed during a "special paranoid night" on Canal Plus, a leading french TV channel, was in fact pure disinformation. http://www.transfert.net/fr/cyber_societe/article.cfm?idx_rub=87&idx_art=3751 + the official answer from Sandra England President, PGP Security This memo is to clarify some confusion caused by statements made by Frederic Braut during a televised broadcast on Canal-Plus in France on January 15. Braut mistakenly stated that PGP Security products enable some governments to covertly decrypt mail messages. These comments were incorrectly construed to imply that there is a "back door" in some PGP Security products. http://www.pgp.com/international/france/other/clarification.asp + "What Has PGP® Become?" French users of OpenPGP against the PGP® of NAI http://www.geocities.com/openpgp/pgp2000-eng.html - - - ----------------- DH/DSS 0xC970D609 F2F9 B468 DFC4 E60E BFFB FC9B 1DB0 A265 C970 D609 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 6.5i Comment: PGP version 6.5.8 : mettez à jour votre PGP ! iQA/AwUBOm7TZR2womXJcNYJEQIvQACgz/OevTmXuRx5Ii6o1/jUks3X2zcAoIke IOt3IdhAnvghiedQOiRpJa8/ =LzIw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- FC: Network Associates 'fesses up to PGP backdoor, or maybe not Declan McCullagh (Jan 24)