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[go]                           8:15am  23.Mar.98.PST               Today's Headlines
                               An MIT professor has proposed a
                               new method of providing for
                                                                   Royal Service with Microsoft Postman
[delivered]                    secure data exchange on the
                               Internet - one that uses a
                                                                   IBM to Offer Reseller Financing
[go]                           technique that he argues lies
                               outside the control of US
                               officials struggling to maintain    A Work-Around for Crypto Export Restrictions
 [Search]                      a tight hold on                     Silicon Subdivision: Scotland's Glen
                               encryption-enabled software.
 [WIRED magazine]
                               Ronald Rivest, relying on an        Asian Crisis Blows Riches Away
                               ancient threshing floor analogy,
                               calls his process chaffing and      Steve, Will You Go Steady with Us?
                               winnowing.
                                                                   HP Java Fight Will Test Sun's Resources
                               Using his technique, messages
                               are sent on the Net in a            AOL's Real Estate Center 'Nothing New'
                               combination of good packets
                               (wheat) and bad packets (chaff).    FCC Wins Ruling on Long-Distance Service
                               The wheat packets can be
                               distinguished - or winnowed -       Gates Avoids Creaming in Philippines
                               from the chaff packets by the
                               authentication code, or MACs,       It Wasn't Ticking, But It Still Took a Licking
                               appended to them. If a packet
                               meets the authentication code,      @Home-Road Runner Merger Stalled?
                               it is valid; if it fails, it is
                               not valid and is thrown out.        Brokers Fight for Equal Rights
                               They key to the authentication
                               code is known only by the           As Compaq Cuts Prices, IBM Cuts Deeper
                               sending and receiving parties.
                                                                   EU Approves Power-Line Net Service
                               Rivest notes that authenticating
                               data is not considered              Juno: A Marketing Test Lab for LCI?
                               encryption, and thus his
                               chaffing and winnowing process      Barnes & Noble and Borders Sued by Booksellers
                               would avoids US restrictions on
                               the export of encryption            Microsoft Spends as it Defends
                               technology. Furthermore, he
                               writes: "Access to                  Only Together Do Rivals Out-Do Microsoft
                               authentication keys is one thing
                               that government has long agreed     New Economy: Tech Embraces 'Offshore' Employees
                               that they don't want to."
                               Rivest's paper, reported in         Deductible Junkets: Meetings of the Minds
                               Sunday's New York Times, has a
                               clear political point: "As a        Dream Job: Fork Programmer
                               consequence of the existence of
                               chaffing and winnowing," he
                               writes, "one can argue that         [InfoSeek. Once you know, you know. Click here.]
                               attempts by law enforcement to   []
                               regulate confidentiality by
                               regulating encryption must fail,
                               as confidentiality can be
                               obtained effectively without
                               encryption."

                               Related Wired Links:
                               [Image]

                               Network Associates Sidesteps
                               Crypto Controls
                               20.Mar.98

                               Mandatory or Not, Feds Still
                               Want Door to Data
                               18.Mar.98

                               Check on other Web coverage of
                               this story with NewsBot

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