Reply From: joey miller <omiat_private> this is sort of interesting. i have a paper (skipjack.txt, lemme know if anyone wants it), dated 1993, and written by a team of guys from AT&T, Sandia labs, Amperif, Georgetown Univ, etc, and it's basically the first (as far as 1993 is concerned), outsiders review of skipjack, and in it, they conclude basically that skipjack is a strong algorithm, immune to a lot of cryptanalytic attacks, but the classified nature of it must remain, otherwise people would be able to remove the LEAF (key escrow stuff) portion, yet still have a rather strong encryption that is still compatible with other (standard, with the key escrowing enabled) skipjack devices/etc ... now, this makes me believe the release of the source is either a good thing, as it can be used as the basis for a better algorithm w/out key escrow, or that the gov't has finally given up on the Clipper chip, and anything else based on Skipjack... joey > Forwarded From: "Jay D. Dyson" <jdysonat_private> > Originally From: John Young <jyaat_private> > > Thanks to Ed Roback, NIST: > > http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun1998/b06231998_bt316-98.html > > DoD Press Release, June 23, 1998: > > No. 316-78 > IMMEDIATE RELEASE > June 23, 1998 > (703)695-0192(media) > (703)697-5737(public/industry) > > ENCRYPTION FORMULAS DECLASSIFIED > > The Department of Defense today announced the decision by the National > Security Agency to declassify both the Key Exchange Algorithm and the > SKIPJACK encryption algorithm used in the FORTEZZA(tm) personal computer > card. FORTEZZA(tm) provides security at the desktop in the Defense Message > System and other DoD applications. This marks the first time that the NSA > has declassified such information and made it commercially available. > > This declassification is an essential part of the Department of Defense's > efforts to work with commercial industry in developing reasonably priced > computer protection products. This declassification decision will enable > industry to develop software and smartcard based security products, which > are interoperable with FORTEZZA(tm). The availability of such products > will enhance the protection of DoD's sensitive but unclassified and > critical non-mission communications. > > The decision to release SKIPJACK (an 80 bit encryption algorithm that is > not extensible to higher key lengths) and KEA (a 1024 bit key exchange > algorithm) is restricted to these particular algorithms, and does not > apply to other classified NSA algorithms. The SKIPJACK and KEA algorithms > and their source codes have been declassified pursuant to Executive Order > 12958. > > Vendors interested in obtaining more information on this matter should > contact the National Security Agency Public Affairs Office at > 301-688-6524. > > [End] -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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