Other Directory Sites: SeekWonder | Directory Owners Forum
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:05
Daniel J. Frasnelli (dfrasnel@csee.wvu.edu)
Mon, 25 Jan 1999 00:09:24 -0500 (EST)
> > So, again, what I'm really interested in finding out is, if you had a group
> > of American cryptographic engineers in the same room, is there anything you
> > could do in that room that you couldn't do if there were any foriegn
> > nationals present?
>
> Not if you didn't go around talking about it.
I suspect that the laws "per the books" would prohibit you
from discussing algorithms, methods, etc. which could lead to the possible
export of strong crypto. If you were to discuss such things, your
mouth would be considered an instrument of mass destruction. But the
answer depends more on situational variables such as who their employer
is. If you have private sector cryptographers who work for say, IBM, they
can likely get away with a good deal of work-related discussion even in
the presence of foreign nationals.
If you have a few cryptanalysts from the NSA or CSE in the same
room, a few things will be apparent: 1) they probably will not be
discussing anything at all, 2) they will be on opposite sides of the room
(hey, nothing suspicious here!), 3) at least half will be conspicuously
casual, wearing bright Bermuda trunks and a sport jacket top (just kidding
:-)
In all sincerity, anyone working under contract or directly
for the government (DoD particularly) in cryptographic analysis will not
discuss details of their work in public or in private, regardless of
foreign national presence. An implied and indoctrnated philosophy of
working in an SCI (secure, compartmentalized) environment is that your
work remains within the walls of your cubical or group, for the most part.
To its credit, the NSA encourages their cypherpunks to join
related professional organizations and publish (approved) papers.
Best regards,
Daniel
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 01:18:05