THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY July 4, 2002 Escrowed Encryption Standard ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: The .tv Corporation
Save 30% on Web addresses! Not only will you get a great deal on your Web addresses, but you'll also get superior customer service, innovative products and services and a place that is easy to register and manage your Web addresses. Great names are still available. Register the names you want before someone else does! Check it out now: http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,4278,00.htm?the.tvcorporation ______________ TODAY'S WORD: Escrowed Encryption Standard See our definition with hyperlinks at http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci837181,00.html The Escrowed Encryption Standard (EES) is a standard for encrypted communications that was approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1994 and is better known by the name of an implementation called the Clipper chip. The significant feature of EES is its so-called key escrow method of enabling eavesdropping by authorized government agencies under certain circumstances. The encryption/decryption algorithm used by EES is called SKIPJACK. The feature can be incorporated into communications devices including voice, facsimile (fax), and computer data. EES provides all the features of strong encryption with one exception: law-enforcement officials can intercept the communications given a court order allowing them to do so. This interception is made possible by means of a law-enforcement access field (LEAF), along with two decryption keys, one held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the other held by Automated Systems Division of the Treasury Department. The chip designed for implementing EES, and which was proposed by President Clinton for use in personal and business communications systems (including computers), was originally called Clipper. The initial public response was negative, presumably because people feared the use of the Clipper chip would become mandatory in all personal computers and other communications devices using strong encryption. There were also concerns about the possibility that the escrowed decryption keys could be obtained by unauthorized persons, or misused by overzealous government agencies. RELATED TERMS: cryptography http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci214431,00.html encryption http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci212062,00.html ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: NIST provides more information about EES. http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip185.htm The Association for Computing Machinery also provides information about EES. http://www.acm.org/reports/acm_crypto_study/chap7.html MIT provides more about the controversial Clipper chip, many legal aspects of which remain unresolved. http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/articles/crypto/clipper94.html ______________________ WHATIS DISCUSSION FORUM | Challenge #7: Token ring or Ethernet Challenges are another learning tool where you (the reader) try to solve various real-life IT problems. Sometimes there's one right answer, but more often than not (just as in real life) there are several ways to approach the problem -- and that's why reading how other people would troubleshoot the Challenge is a fun way to learn. CHALLENGE #7: Kennedy High School had five computer labs that were on a token ring network but operated independently. Tim, the technology teacher, was given the ok to connect the labs to each other. Should he keep the labs token ring or make the switch to Ethernet? You tell us. >>Try the challenge http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]^1@.1dcfae0e/49!viewtype=threadDate&skip=&expand= ______________________ QUIZ #28 | Ethernet How much do you know about the most popular network technology in the world? Take our latest quiz and find out! http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci834253,00.html ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] CompactFlash card http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid5_gci836292,00.html [2] counterfeit detector pen http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci835821,00.html [3] user acceptance testing http://searchvb.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid8_gci836031,00.html [4] NET FAIR http://searchebusiness.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci833626,00.html [5] Sable http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci833759,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Assistant Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Created by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. 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