[forwarded submission from a non-member address -- rjk]


From: Dave Turner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 01:33:38 -0500
Subject: Re: [Boston.pm] obfuscation/compiler/summary
To: James Eshelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: mongers of perl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

James Eshelman wrote:
> Now if you're writing for NSA or DOD, that's another matter. In-line
> encryption all the way, but it will cost you in performance.

The NSA, wisely, does not trust this sort of obfuscation to protect
their secrets.  When they wanted a secret algorithm (the Skipjack cipher
for the clipper chip), they required that it be implemented only in
tamper-resistant hardware.  Here's one source(reputable: Whit Diffie)
which claims this but doesn't describe the reasoning as I did:
http://hotwired.lycos.com/clipper/diffie.html

--
-Dave Turner

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