EuroClipper - European Commission may make it compulsory
Mark McCutcheon
(Adam Back) says:
> <SNIP>
> The whole idea of government mandated key-escrow is bogus, any one
> with anything to hide will be using steganography anyway (the
> hiding of encrypted data streams in noisy data streams - audio,
> graphic, text), the moment encryption becomes itself something to
> hide, or even before to hide even the fact that a commication took place.
> It's all about law-enforcement and secret service types liking to
> eavesdrop, and go on fishing expeditions. Crypto, and
> steganography mean they can't do this anymore. For the intent in
> the UK at weakening crypto so that GCHQ and friends can read the
> lot, look at the A5/A5X (GSM phone crypto algorithm) fiasco.
> <SNIP>
> And remember, say NO to key-escrow :-)
>
> Adam
Steganography no doubt has its uses in file exchange and file storage,
but in practical terms does nothing for someone who wishes to make use
of secure, encrypted telecommunications. Bear in mind that whatever
the wishes of various law enforcement organizations, the strongest
efforts of the US and other western governments (witness Clipper, and
your GSM reference above) have been toward preserving official access
to telephone conversations. Steganography is unlikely to help you
here. By its nature the possible information density is extremely
low; unless you have the wherewithal to lease an OC-3 SONET line (and
a computer with the I/O bandwidth to keep it full) for your personal
telephone conversations, you really need some more efficient form of
information security.
--
Mark