Part 101 (1/2)
”I for one would be most interested,” said Senator Deere ”It appeared that this eable that we are Any clarifications will be reed silently Much of the history was cloaked in secrecy
The distinguished Ted Ha the best that Washi+ngton diplomatic-speak could muster
At 50 years old, his short cropped white hair capped a proper h he had on associations ”Thank you anized folder and turned a page
”Concerns of privacy can be traced back thousands of years with perhaps the Egyptian pyramids as the first classic example of a brute force approach towards privacy The first recorded at- tee were in Roenerals in the field The Romans used a simple substitution cipher where one letter in the alphabet is used in place of another The cryptograms found in the Sunday paper use the same techniques
Any e is scrambled is known as encryption”
The CNN producer maintained the sole camera shot and his atten- tion on Ted Hammacher He missed Senator Rickfield and his aid reappear on the dais Rickfield's eyes penetrated Nancy Deere who ied his return ”You should not over- step your bounds,” Rickfield leaned over and said to her ”You have five years to go Stunts like this will not make your time any easier”
”Senator,” she said to Rickfield as Hammacher spoke ”You are obviously not familiar with the procedures of Senate panel proto- col I was s in your absence, I assure you” Her coolness infuriated Rick- field
”Well, then, thank you,” he sneered ”But, now, I am back I will appreciate no further procedural interference” He sat up brusquely indicating that his was the last word on the subject
Unaware of the political sidebar in progress, Hammacher contin- ued
”Ciphers were evolved over the centuries until they reached a te World War II The Ger or encryption device ever devised
Suitably called the Enigma, their encryption scheme was nearly uncrackable until the Allies captured one of the devices, and then under the leadershi+p of Alan Turing, a h Co instru about an end to the war
”In the years i World War II, the only per- ceived need for secrecy was by the ence services, namely the OSS as it became the modern CIA, the British MI-5 and MI-6 and of course our opponents on the other side In an effort to ical leadershi+p position, the National Security Agency funded various projects to develop encryption scheovern- ment information and communications for the foreseeable future
”The first such requests were issued in 1972 but it wasn't until 1974 that the National Bureau of Standards accepted an IBM pro- posal for an encryption process known as Lucifer With the assistance of the NSA who is responsible for cryptography, the Data Encryption Standard was approved in Nove furor over the DES, so that the NSA intentionally weakened it to insure that they could still decrypt any orithroup, FIMAS endorsed a DES based method to authenticate Electronic Funds Transfer, or EFT Banks move upwards of a trillion dollars daily, and in an effort to insure that all monies are moved accurately and to their intended desti- nations, the technique of Message Authentication Coding was introduced For still unknown reasons it was decided that en- crypting the contents of the es, or transfers, was unneces- sary Thus, financial transactions are still carried out with no protection fro”
”Excuse me, Mr Hammacher, I want to understand this,” interrupt- ed Senator Deere ”Are you saying that, since 1976, we have had the ability to cae the nation's financial networks, yet as of today, they are still unprotected?” Rickfield looked over at Nancy in disgust but the single camera missed it
”Yes, ma'am, that's exactly the case,” replied Hammacher
”What does that e citi- zen?”
”In my opinion it borders on insanity It means that for the price of a bit of electronic equips of banks, the government and every citizen in this country”
Senator Deere visibly gulped ”Thank you, please continue”
”In 1984, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 145 NSDD-145 established that defense contractors and other organizations that handle sensitive or classified inforuidelines A nuroups were established, and to a minimal extent, the recommendations have been implemented, but I must emphasize, to a minimal extent”
”Can you be a little more specific, Mr Hareat deal of these efforts are classified and by divulging who is not currently in compliance would be a security violation in itself It would be fair to say, though, that the eted for additional security overnment's intentions and desires I am sorry I cannot be ain,” Nancy said to Hammacher, ”I am sorry to interrupt”
”Not at all, Senator” Halass
”As you can see, the interest in security was priovernment, and more specifically the defense community In 1981, the Department of Defense chartered the DoD Computer Secu- rity Center which has since beco under the auspices of the National Security Agency In 1983 they published a series of guidelines to be used in the creation or evaluation of computer security Officially titled the Trusted Computer Security Evaluation Criteria, it is popularly known as the Orange Book It has had soe it is an outdated docuned for older computer architectures
”The point to be overnment had an ostensible interest and concern about the security of computers, especially those under their control, there was virtually no overt significance placed upon the security of private industry's computers Worse yet, it was not until 1987 that any proposed criteria were developed for networked coether with millions of coh to address the issue Even today, there are no secure network criteria that are universally accepted”
”Mr Hammacher” Senator Rickfield spoke up for the first ti tone with respect to the United States Governe itself I for one reest
Therefore, I would ask that you stick to the subject at hand, the facts, and leave your personal opinions at home”
Nancy Deere as well as much of the audience listened in awe as Rickfield slashed out at Haument Common courtesy demanded that he be per- mitted to finish his statement, even if his conclusions were unpopular or erroneous