DTI Policy Response

[Ross Anderson]

Neil Dunbar:

> It would be sufficient to start mandate that government and government
> funded bodies use licensed TTPs - so that's the universities taken care
> of for a start (sound FX: large explosion in Pembroke Street).

Serious and persistent attempts have been made to foist GAK encryption
on the NHS, whose bureaucrats are terrified of doing anything that
GCHQ might raise an eyebrow at. When I find some spare time I'll write
up the story which is rife with serious administrative malpractice.

As for the universities, we are rapidly being privatised. Money for
capital spending and even maintenance has vanished; for a new building
you have to shine your pants in rich men's waiting rooms. The average
UK undergraduate now owes 5000 pounds at the end of his course and
this will shortly rise to 10000. The number of new grants for research
students that our lab receives from EPSRC has shrunk from 9 to 3 over
the last six years; so now most of our research students now get their
money from elsewhere (all of mine do).

A couple of months ago, I told the DTI to get stuffed when they tried
to pay us to get involved in a Link project on copyright marking. We
can get all the support we need from private industry with a tenth of
the hassle.

So if Tony requires recipients of EPSRC dosh to use the GCHQ protocol
then that's fine by me. I will continue designing and using
GAK-hostile systems; the academic freedom provisions in my contract of
employment will stop the Vice Chancellor from sacking me; the
University's block grant will be axed and a huge cheer will go up from
all the scientists, engineers and lawyers here. The modern and
medieval language people will moan and whine but who cares: we will
finally have kicked the heroin habit of replying on Whitehall money.

Ross

By the way, if you want to see a really GAK-hostile system, take a look 
at the Steganographic File System, on www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/#Tempest. 
This is just what the doctor ordered for Mrs Roche's dreaded 
`decryption warrant'.