Matt BlazeMar 20, 2023
As we approach the 30th anniversary of the announcement of the Clipper Chip, the NSA’s ill-fated attempt to standardize a key escrow system for commercial cryptography, I recently came across the coffee mug they gave me when I picked up my sample Tessera/Fortezza PCMCIA cards while visiting Fort Meade. (It has a hidden message behind a thermochromatic coating.)
Show threadMatt BlazeMar 20, 2023
(The mug says “made in China” on the bottom, but was still allowed into, and out of, the NSA’s SCIFs.)
Show threadMatt BlazeMar 20, 2023

About a dozen years ago, I was asked to write a brief recollection of the whole Clipper thing.

https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/escrow-acsac11.pdf

Show threadMatt Blaze
An interesting hypothetical is whether my work on bypassing the Clipper LEAF would have violated the DMCA, had it been law at the time.
Mar 24, 2023 at 3:14amWeb
Show threadMatt BlazeMar 24, 2023
(I suspect not, since the bypass permitted use of the Skipjack algorithm, which was classified, but, as a US Government work, not copyrighted. So this is a case where copyright enjoys more protection than classified secrets.)