72077.432@compuserve.com (John R. Bruni) (01/21/91)
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]