>From: Ian G <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Jun 4, 2005 6:43 AM >To: Steve Furlong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Cc: cryptography@metzdowd.com >Subject: Re: Papers about "Algorithm hiding" ?
>GPG is an application that could be delivered by default >in all free OSs. BSD is more or less installed automatically >with SSH installed. Linux machines that are set up are >also generally set up with SSH. I think you need one more step here to get the protective coloration effect you'd like, where encrypted files aren't automatic evidence of wrongdoing: During installation, generate 50 or so random passwords with too much entropy to feasibly guess (easy to do when no user need ever remember them), and encrypt some reasonable-length files full of binary zeros with them. The number of randomly-generated files needs to be randomized, naturally, and probably should follow some kind of distribution with a big tail to the right, so that it's not that uncommon for a random install to put several hundred encrypted files on the drive. The value of this is that an attacker now sees encrypted files on every machine, most of which nobody on Earth can decrypt. If this is normal, then it's not evidence. (There are probably a bunch of issues here with putting plausible tracks in the logs, datestamps on the files, etc. But it seems like something like this could work....) ... >Certainly using another app is fine. What would be more >relevant to the direct issue is that it becomes routine to >encrypt and to have encryption installed. See the recent >threads on where all the data is being lost - user data is >being lost simply because the companies don't protect >it. Why aren't they protecting it? Because there are no >easy tools that are built in to automatically and easily >protect it. Huh? There have been effective tools for protecting data from disclosure for a long time, though it's not clear what good they'd do for a company whose whole business was just selling access to that data for a fee. I'll bet the Choicepoints of the world are pretty careful protecting, say, their payroll and HR records from disclosure. It's just *your* data they don't mind giving out to random criminals. No amount of crypto could have helped this. >iang --John Kelsey --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]