Subject: [Raven] as if someone gently tapping....

From: "P.J. Ponder" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 09:55:38 -0500 (EST)

Does providing capabilities for interception in protocols:

1) Open potential security vulnerabilities?  

2) Could these facilities be misused or abused by people who are not
legally authorized in their own jurisdictions to intercept other people's
traffic? 

3) Would the addition of these facilities add, or potentially add, to the
complexity of the protocols being designed or modified?  Would it be more
work and result in more complexity?

The IETF suite of protocols are designed as least common denominator
methods of ensuring the greatest level of interoperability by the widest
range of connected network users.  Given this, 

4) Is the IETF's strategic direction aimed more toward facilitating
personal and private communications and secure business communications, or
is it aimed more toward monitoring and transparency of Internet traffic?  

5) Should design decisions assume a network of high-minded, ethical and
law-abiding users, or should designs help ensure the greatest level of
security to users who would otherwise be incapable of protecting their own
communications (either through naivete, ignorance, indolence, coercion, or
lack of choices)? 

6) Would the addition of tap-ready facilities add to the overall security
of the network, or reduce the level of security inherent in the network? 

(This is a network security question, as posed here.  In my opinion, the
IETF should look at (and we should be discussing) the security in the
network, not security in the world society at large, which is someone
else's job.) 

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