PGP "master keys"

[StealthMonger]

"Steven M. Bellovin" <smb at cs.columbia.edu> writes:

> In an article on disk encryption
> (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/26/pgp_infosec/), the following
> paragraph appears:

> 	BitLocker has landed Redmond in some hot water over its insistence
> 	that there are no back doors for law enforcement. As its
> 	encryption code is open source, PGP says it can guarantee no back
> 	doors, but that cyber sleuths can use its master keys if
> 	neccessary.

> What is a "master key" in this context?

Interesting epilog: theregister has apparently now edited out all
mention of master keys.  In a version downloaded via the Agora
web-to-mail gateway at Sat, 29 Apr 2006 03:42:05 +0900 (JST), the
second sentence reads "PGP says its open source encryption code also
guarantees no back doors."  (full stop)

 -- StealthMonger

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com