Additional comments on RSA Data Security Conf

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 94 20:04:47 +0000
From: Stephen D Crocker <crocker () tis com>


A couple of related points to add to Steve Walker's fine summary of
the RSA Data Security Conf.


As Steve Walker said, Whit Diffie filled in for Clint Brooks and gave a
presentation of the Government's rationale for its position on export
control, DSS and Clipper.  Whit did a masterful job of presenting the
Government's position, viz the signals intelligence operations and the
law enforcement operations both believe it's important to be able to
read other people's mail and that it's appropriate to protect this
capability through Government policy.


In the discussion phase of that session, there was considerable
questioning of the Government's position on DSS.  Lynn McNulty
acknowledged DSS would likely be a distant second to RSA in actual
use, and that the Government would have to deal with conversion and
other nasty issues related to having multiple algorithms.  One
question which was asked but not adequately answered is whether the
Government's strategy will actually achieve the desired effect of
retarding use of the RSA.  Another question along the same is line is
how much it will cost to have DSS inserted into the marketplace, i.e.
what the marginal direct and indirect costs will be to both the
Government and the nation.  So far, I have not seen either of these
questions addressed in any open forum.


On the commercial side, General Magic unveiled its long-awaited
technology of "agents" running Telescript programs.  These agents
wander around cyberspace on your behalf.  Whether or not General Magic
prevails, they've clearly ushered in a whole new era of networking,
and it's worth learning about.  The connection with this meeting is
that General Magic uses RSA for protection in the communications.