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- Xref: sparky sci.crypt:6644 alt.security.pgp:485
- Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!ibmpcug!mantis!news
- From: mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
- Newsgroups: sci.crypt,alt.security.pgp
- Subject: Re: Zimmermann's responses to Sidelnikov's PGP critique
- Message-ID: <930111.145154.0F0.rusnews.w165w@mantis.co.uk>
- Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 14:51:54 GMT
- References: <1993Jan8.173701.8858@ncar.ucar.edu> <1993Jan8.193153.4336@netcom.com>
- Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
- X-Newsreader: rusnews v0.98
- Lines: 29
-
- strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
- >In article <1993Jan8.173701.8858@ncar.ucar.edu> prz@sage.cgd.ucar.edu (Philip
- > Zimmermann) writes:
- >>In conclusion, I'd like to point out that normally, when an academic
- >>paper is published that claims a cryptosystem is weak, it generally
- >>includes some real data to back up its claims. Such data is
- >>conspicuously absent here.
- >
- > This attitude is a hiding behind "academic" practice in an area where
- > Sidelnikov has raised the most serious doubts about a number of
- > aspects of PGP as presently implemented. For him to be both an
- > Academician (the highest rank in Soviet Science, given to very few,
- > and after massive and extended demonstrations of competence) and a
- > Laboratory Manager means we ought to take his words with at least as
- > much seriousness (but without the associated "special pleading" doubts
- > some might have) as similar words from the head of the cryptanalysis
- > division (or whatever it is called) of the NSA.
-
- It looked to me like Philip has done so, and is therefore interested in
- seeing some actual data provided by Sidelnikov.
-
- > Let me be perfectly clear here. Sidelnikov's standing in the
- > cryptology field in the Soviet scientific community is of the most
- > senior level, and that's not a statement about science politics.
-
- It is, however, painfully close to argumentum ad verecundiam.
-
-
- mathew
-