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From: 72077.432@compuserve.com (John R. Bruni)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Secure Phones/Cliff Stoll
Message-ID: <16242@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 91 06:15:02 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 43, Message 1 of 12


Hi,

I messaged Cliff Stoll regarding the secure phones controversy and he
asked me to send the following message:

To the Telecom Digest Gang...

 I've been away from the Usenet for the past couple weeks -- on the road.
 I'm asking John Bruni to post this note for me, since it'll be a couple
 weeks before I get on the Usenet (you don't want to know what's going on!)

 Several people have told me that there's a discussion about a scene on
 page 42 of The Cuckoo's Egg:  about my being called on a secure phone.  
 The guy that I called didn't want to talk to me when I called him, but
 it was OK once he called me back.

 Here's my theory:  Either, he wanted to make sure that I was a real person
 and not some bozo.  By calling me back, he knew my phone number and knew 
 that he could find out exactly who I was.  Possibly, he has some kind of
 secure telephone system -- say, something that would be secure as long as
 it was on one network, and insecure afterwards.  From what I now know,
 this seems unlikely;  the secure telephone units (STU) systems provide 
 end-to-end encryption but would require both of us to have STU's.  
 
 Hope this clarifies things -- I'd appreciate it if someone would mail a 
 copy of the thread to me at   cliff@cfa.harvard.edu.


 Cheers,   Cliff Stoll (visiting IBM Yorktown Research Labs)


[Moderator's Note: Cliff Stoll tried to reach me by phone and left a
message on my voicemail saying pretty much what he said here. I'm
sorry I missed his call.  PAT]