Abstract

Key escrow systems are those where part or all of the cryptographic keys are kept “in escrow” by third parties. The keys are released only upon proper authority to allow some person other than the original sender or receiver to read the message. The U. S. government is strongly supporting key escrow as a way to balance the needs for secrecy between communicating persons against the needs of law enforcement and national security agencies to sometimes read these encrypted communications (with proper legal authority). This chapter presents the technical aspects of the Clipper Chip, the U.S. Government’s first proposed key escrow system. It also mentions how Clipper fits into other proposed government cryptosystems and then presents a more general view of key escrow cryptosystems.

Date

1995

Authors

Dorothy E Denning, Ernest F Brickell, Dorothy E Denning, Stephen T Kent, David P Maher, Walter Tuchman, Matt Blaze, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Silvio Micali, Stephen T Walker, David M Balenson, Carl M Ellison, Steven B Lipner

Book

Building in Big Brother: The Cryptographic Policy Debate

Pages

109-225

Publisher

Springer New York