Re: [Full-disclosure] <Cisco Message> Mike Lynn's controversial Cisco Security Presentation

From: J.A. Terranson (measl_at_mfn.org)
Date: 07/30/05

  • Next message: Jason Coombs: "Re: [Full-disclosure] <Cisco Message> Mike Lynn's controversial Cisco Security Presentation" 
    Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:51:01 -0500 (CDT)
To: Jason Coombs <jasonc@science.org>

    On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Jason Coombs wrote:

    <cutting to the chase>

    > Now, if RC4 had never been used to create a product and had been kept as
    > a trade secret, and that secret had been published, then it would not
    > have become, automatically, an unencumbered algorithm that could be used
    > by anyone with impunity. There being no way other than theft of trade
    > secret for a third party to come to know the algorithm, had a court
    > order been obtained to halt the spread of the secret the algorithm
    > itself could very well have been kept as protectable intellectual
    > property until such time as the company that enjoyed a commercial
    > advantage through preservation of their RC4 trade secret had concluded
    > the public distribution of a product that somebody else could have
    > reverse engineered.

    The problem here is essentially one of mass distribution. There are now
    *millions* of copies of these "secrets" in general circulation. Nobody
    can assert with a straight face that anything about Lynn's presentation is
    not completely and totally within the public view - and irretrievably so. 

    -- 
Yours,
J.A. Terranson
sysadmin@mfn.org
0xBD4A95BF
"A stock broker is someone who handles your money until its all gone."
Diana Hubbard (of Scientology fame)
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  • Next message: Jason Coombs: "Re: [Full-disclosure] <Cisco Message> Mike Lynn's controversial Cisco Security Presentation"

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