WTF is the Clipper Chip project?

[Darkhawk32]

Reporter in the WH press corps just asked why the WH isn't going to use this "Clipper Chip Project" against Al Gore.

WTH is that?

[CatWoman]

1. I just googled it

http://www.austinlinks.com/Crypto/non-tech.html

[hiaasenrocks]

2. Here you go:

http://www.epic.org/crypto/clipper/

The only other time I had heard of this was in a John Sandford thriller novel.

[SidDithers]

3. My favourite Clipper "Chip"...

Sid

[Mabus]

4. Link to the wiki on Clipper Chip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

[Chiyo-chichi]

5. What was Puffy's answer?

[Darkhawk32]

6. He didn't want to talk about it and I think I know why......

Here is an excerpt from the Clipper Chip Fact Sheet....

"In the area of communications encryption, the U. S. Government has
developed a microcircuit that not only provides privacy through
encryption that is substantially more robust than the current
government standard, but also permits escrowing of the keys needed
to unlock the encryption. The system for the escrowing of keys
will allow the government to gain access to encrypted information
only with appropriate legal authorization."

[CatWoman]

7. bwahahahaha

only with appropriate legal authorization

[Darkhawk32]

10. Ayup. I found that in about two minutes... Thanks for the links above btw

Now, are the networks going to try to tell me(us) that they couldn't "fact check" that.

Puh-lease.

[Greyhound]

8. Just another of the tools Big Brother is insinuating into your life

to control you. :tinfoilhat:

[gkhouston]

11. I remember spin-offs of the Intel logo (at a time when the

Clipper Chip debate was raging) that read "Big Brother Inside) instead of "Intel Inside". :-)

[grasswire]

9. here's a good page of information

There's a link to the 1994 letter from Al Gore telling of the abandonment of the project.

[liveoaktx]

12. Software companies issue, as I recall it

Companies such as RSA sell encrpytion to software companies such as Microsoft. RSA wanted to be able to sell a higher level of encryption outside the US but the US wanted the aiblity to be able to *decrypt* the data with a decryption key up to a certain point, and thus would not allow exports of higher than 56 bit-encryption keys outside the US. The Clipper chip was supposed to allow the US, not randomly, but upon court order, to be able to decrypt encrypted data. Only 56 bit length data encryption was allowed to be exported outside the country, although within the US we have a higher level of encryption (128/256). So, suppose you wanted to encrypt your email so that the person reading it on the other end had to have an encryption key to read it, and so that you knew that ONLY that person was getting it-the US wanted to have a back door chip to be able to read it if necessary.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/1002code.html
<snip>
The approach is to be announced Wednesday and has passed muster with the CIA. It would enable law-enforcement officials to unscramble computer communications -- provided they have a warrant -- without having to obtain a mathematical key to the code.
</snip>

Look-PROVIDED THEY HAVE A WARRANT.

[Darkhawk32]

14. I found that in post #6. But thank you for more clarification.. n/t

[Darkhawk32]

17. BTW, I love your site. Keep up the great work! n/t

[khashka]

22. Wait... stop....

Has everyone forgotten that the guy who invented PGP encryption went to jail? Because he made it freely available rather than giving it to the government? That it's a felony to share PGP with anyone outside our borders? It constitutes international arms trading and treason?


"Passed muster with the CIA?" Don't make me laugh!

And I think we are well past the "provided they have a warrant" thang. Wasn't that the whole point of the latest spying scandal?

Khash.

[grasswire]

13. check this out!!

Vice President Says Clipper Chip Controls Inadequate
Gore Indicates Administration's Position Is 'Not Locked in Stone'

By Jayne Levin
(c) 1994

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11--Vice President Gore said controls
recently adopted by the Clinton administration that authorize
two government agencies to safeguard the electronic "keys" in an
encoding device called the "Clipper Chip" are inadequate.
Under the Clipper plan, the keys would be stored at the
Treasury Department and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST), which is part of the Commerce Department.
Both Treasury and Commerce are from the same branch of
government, the executive branch.
"When I saw that I said, 'Wow. Wow. That is not right,' and
I raised hell about that," Gore said in an interview Thursday.
Having the key holders from the same branch of government
raises concern because there is no system of checks and
balances, Gore said. "That's going to be changed," he said.
Clipper gives law-enforcement agencies a key to eavesdrop on
telephone and computer communications under a court order.
The selection of NIST and Treasury "was spun out of the
process at the low level and was not vetted at the top," Gore
said. Gore's comments were made after appearing before the first
meeting of a private sector advisory panel on the development of
a "national information infrastructure" in Washington, D.C.
The administration announced Feb. 4 that it intends to push
ahead with the voluntary Clipper Chip encryption scheme, despite
vehement opposition from computer companies and watchdog groups,
such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
But Gore indicated Thursday that the administration's
position is "not locked in stone."
"Our determination to solve the problem is locked in stone,
and our determination to proceed with this in the absence of a
better solution is locked in stone," he said "...the burden is
on those who say there is a better solution because no solution
for the national security dimension of the problem is unacceptable
to us."
Mitch Kapor, EFF chairman and a member of the advisory
committee, said he was "encouraged" by the vice president's
remarks.
"This was a signal to me that is very
ready and willing to look at alternatives...both to the
administrative procedures and the technology."

http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/1994/1994ADS.html

[Darkhawk32]

15. Wow! That's a zinger! n/t

[Mabus]

16. "the chip itself was a dead issue by 1996."

according to the wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

The Clipper chip was not embraced by consumers or manufacturers, and the chip itself was a dead issue by 1996. The government continued to press for key escrow by using incentives to manufacturers, allowing more relaxed export controls if key escrow were part of cryptographic software that was exported. These attempts were largely mooted by the widespread use of such strong cryptographic technologies as PGP, which was not under the control of the U.S. government.

In 1998, the encryption algorithms used in Clipper were declassified: Skipjack and KEA.

[underpants]

19. It is amazing how much GOOD he was working on while VP

I mention the GOOD as a juxtaposition to the evil overlord Cheney

Gore also proposed a system of tidal wave monitoring that could have helped in warning about the tsunami of 2004. Cut by the Republican congress.<---Franken talks about it in his new book.

[underpants]

24. **** READ THIS ***^^^^^^

Needs a thread of its own grasswire

[Darkhawk32]

25. I agree! We need to set up our own talking point thread in the GD forum..

and in the Research forum. Let's nip this one in the bud.

[Mabus]

26. How about a general topic in the Research Forum to combat this

and other myths.

[Darkhawk32]

18. I guarantee you that they're going to use this as their next

talking point. Bank on it.

[underpants]

21. If Les is asking about it it already is

Of course you know how this works. They run it out on internet boards and then have some tool like Les mention it then Britt and Fred will talk about it like they had heard about before yesterday and cement their talking points for the rest of MSM to base all reports about it on.

[johnaries]

20. So, since their first lie has been debunked they had to create another

one. And used their new Jeff Gannon plant to do it. They are running scared!

[Chiyo-chichi]

23. So the intent of the question was...

why doesn't the administration raise the Clipper Chip to point out that the Clinton/Gore admin. wanted to make surveilance earier?
And the answer is that Clinton/Gore wanted law enforcement to use it legally, i.e., with court-ordered warrants? And that Gore argued that the keys should not be kept exclusively by the Executive branch?

How would do anything but make the Bush administration look bad by comparison?

"Checks and balances?" How quaint. :sarcasm: