Army signals security & "Clansmen" series radios

[Charles Lindsey]

	On Wed, 6 Sep 2000 11:50:49 +0100
	"Owen Lewis" <oml@eloka.demon.co.uk> said...

> One of the interesting points to ponder is whether - and if not why
> not - the diplomats and military have not seized upon the invention of
> public key ciphers, now 30 years old, as the single, simple and secure
> solution to replace other more complex and expensive cipher systems.

I think the reason may be that public key systems are good for
one-to-one and one-to-few communications (and I would be surprised
if the military did not use them for that). But they are not a good
solution to communications that have to be broadcast to many recipients
(to all Her Majesty's ships, for example). OTOH, it was broadcast
messages from the High Commands that made possible the wholesale
interception of enigma traffic during the war.

Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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