Fun_People Archive
31 Oct
Clipper update - no fun

Date: Mon, 31 Oct 94 11:58:31 PST
To: Fun_People
Subject: Clipper update - no fun

Forwarded-by: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Forwarded-by: Wendell Craig Baker <wbaker@splat.baker.com>
From: EPIC ALERT
      Volume 1.06
      October 28, 1994

[3] Clipper: Alive and Well
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vice President Gore's July letter to Rep. Maria Cantwell led some
observers to to hail the "death of Clipper."  Others (including EPIC
and Sen. Patrick Leahy) maintained that the Gore letter simply
re-stated earlier Administration pronouncements on the encryption
issue and did not represent a change in policy.

Any lingering doubts were laid to rest recently by Lynn McNulty, the
Associate Director for Computer Security at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST).  Speaking at a conference sponsored
by the Electronic Messaging Association, McNulty gave a presentation
entitled "Clipper: Alive and Well."  Noting that some media reports
had pronounced Clipper dead, McNulty said simply "that is not
correct."  He reported that the government is "moving ahead to
implement key escrow," and that the designated escrow agents are, in
fact, escrowing keys.  To date, 10,000 Clipper-equipped telephone
units have been purchased by the law enforcement community.  And the
National Security Agency is continuing to aggressively market its key
escrow technology to private manufacturers.

© 1994 Peter Langston