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Book Review: The Business of⁤ Secrets

The Business of Secrets: Adventures in Selling Encryption Around the World ‌by Fred Kinch​ (May 24, 2004)

From the vantage point of today, it’s surreal reading ⁣about the commercial cryptography⁤ business in the 1970s. Nobody knew anything. The manufacturers didn’t‍ know ‌whether the cryptography they sold was any good. The customers ⁣didn’t know whether​ the crypto they bought was any‌ good. everyone pretended to know, thought they knew, or knew better than to⁢ even try to know.

the ​Business of​ Secrets is the self-published memoirs of Fred Kinch. He was founder and vice president of-mostly sales-at a US ⁤cryptographic hardware company called Datotek,⁣ from the company’s founding in 1969 until 1982. It’s⁤ mostly a disjointed collection of stories about the difficulties of selling to governments worldwide, along with descriptions of the​ highs and (mostly) lows⁣ of foreign airlines, ​foreign hotels, and foreign travel in general. But it’s also‌ about encryption.

Datotek sold cryptographic equipment in the era after rotor machines and before modern academic cryptography. The ⁢company initially marketed computer-file‌ encryption, but pivoted to link encryption⁢ – low-speed data,​ voice, ⁤fax⁤ – because that’s what the market⁢ wanted.

These were the years where the NSA hired anyone promising in the ⁤field, ⁣and routinely‍ classified⁢ – and thereby ‌blocked – publication of academic mathematics papers of those they didn’t hire.They controlled the fielding of strong cryptography ⁤by aggressively using the international​ Traffic in Arms ⁣regulation. Kinch talks about the difficulties in getting an expert license ⁢for Datotek’s ‌products; ​he didn’t know that the only reason he ever got that license was ‌because the​ NSA was able to break his company’s stuff. He ⁤had no idea that⁢ his largest competitor, the Swiss ⁣company Crypto AG, was owned and controlled ⁢by the ‍CIA and its West German‍ equivalent. ‌”Wouldn’t that⁢ have made⁣ our life ‍easier if we had known that back​ in the​ 1970s?” Yes, it would. But no one⁢ knew.

Glimmers​ of the clandestine world peek out ⁣of the book. Countries like France‍ ask detailed tech questions, borrow or buy a couple of units for “evaluation,” and then disappear again.Did they break the encryption? Did ‌they‌ just want to see what their adversaries were using? No ⁣one at Datotek knew.

Kinch ⁣”carried ‌the key generator logic diagrams and schematics” with him – even ⁣today it’s⁤ good practice not‌ to rely on their secrecy.

The context of ‍Early ‌Commercial Cryptography

The 1970s ⁢represented a transitional period for cryptography.Rotor machines, while still in use,‌ were becoming increasingly vulnerable. However,the academic field of modern cryptography was​ still ⁢in its ‌infancy,and its​ advancements were often stifled by government classification. this created a vacuum that companies like ‌Datotek ‍attempted ​to‌ fill, but they did ‌so with limited