NSA report details risks of key-recovery technology

[Markus Fleck <fleck@informatik.uni-bonn.de>]

Jetzt hat es sogar die NSA bemerkt,
allerdings erst nach einer teuren Studie:

  "NSA report details risks of key-recovery technology"
  <http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1998/0406/fcw-polnsa-4-6-1998.html>: 

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APRIL 6, 1998 

SECURITY

NSA report details risks of key-recovery
technology

BY HEATHER HARRELD (heather@fcw.com)

The National Security Agency has prepared a report
that may be the first federal government
documentation of the potential risks posed by the
encryption technology that has been at the center of a
raging debate between the Clinton administration and
industry. 

The report details the potential threats of following a
key-recovery technology, which is an encryption
system that uses a so-called back door, which allows
users to retrieve the key needed to unscramble
encrypted data should they lose the key. Key recovery
also would allow law enforcement agents to decode
encrypted data after obtaining a court order or other
authorization. The FBI has been a forceful proponent
of key-recovery technology, arguing that
investigations would be impeded without it.

The Clinton administration intends to make a market
for key-recovery technology by urging federal
agencies to use these encryption systems. At least one
bill that is now being considered by Congress would
require federal agencies to purchase key-recovery
encryption systems for securing data.

But the report, "Threat and Vulnerability Model for
Key Recovery," pointed out that certain law
enforcement agents and officials operating
key-recovery centers could pose the greatest threat to
a key-recovery system - and to the users' data, which
is encrypted by the system - if proper security
mechanisms were not in place.

...

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