On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, D. R. Evans wrote:
> Newer modems almost universally adhere to the DOCSIS 1.0 specification (or
> its European equivalent). That uses single DES (i.e., 56-bit) encryption.
> 1DES is insufficient to keep out someone who really wants to decrypt what
> you're doing, but it should be enough to dissuade the casual observer.
I'm not sure how universal their adherence is as Motorola CyberSURFR, a
fairly widely used modem by @Home, arguably the largest cable modem ISP,
has tripple-DES encryption for at least about 3 years now. Here are the
specs:
http://ecc400.com/motorola/modemspec.htm
I agree that single DES is not enough to keep away someone who is really
interested or really bored.
> Note, however that this applies only to the access network (i.e., it keeps
> the neighbours out). Once the packets hit the CMTS, they're decrypted and
> forwarded as vanilla IP packets.
This is true. Although encryption is usefull, I would also like to point
out that few have access to transit lines and few of those have the
equipment, technical know-how, and the desire to sniff one's particular
conversation. That's not to say that there isn't at least one person that
does. I further maintain that there are more interesting targets than my
conversations. All this said, I'm a firm believer in using connection
level encryption in at least corporate and educational environments, and
I do, but we digress.
On a related note, I don't use message level crypto often because I don't
necessarily want people to have a fairly irrefutable proof that I wrote
something. ;)
Tom
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