Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpsqf!hpopd!bd
From: bd@hpopd.HP.COM (Bob Desinger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: crypt BS?
Message-ID: <8490009@hpopd.HP.COM>
Date: 14 Aug 90 16:32:45 GMT
References: <STEVE.90Jul30153405@apollo.cfht.hawaii.edu>
Organization: HP Software Engineering Systems, UK
Lines: 27

> Yes, I read the FM, and it lamely proclaims:  [etc.]

Complain to your congressperson.  The encryption algorithm is
classified as a munition (!) by the US Government, from what I hear.

> Just how am I supposed to keep my prying sysadm from reading all my files?

Go to your local library and check out the issue of Computer Language
that published the implementation of crypt or DES or whatever it was,
and type in the code.  Or copy Stroustrup's simple encryption code
from his C++ book.

> Or decrypt all those things I crypted
> with an earlier version of the OS?

Get out your backup tapes from the previous version and see if you can
restore and run the old crypt.  I don't know if that would qualify you
for arrest by the FBI or something, so on second thought maybe you
better just leave those backup tapes alone.

Maybe the real problem is that you're lulling yourself into a false
sense of security by keeping confidential material on a computer.

I'm not speaking for HP.  No warranties or merchantability or fitness
for any particular purpose and all that.

-- bd