View allAll Photos Tagged Microprocessors
MYK-78T ("Clipper") encryption chip, installed in an AT&T TSD-3600E Telephone Security Device, an encrypting telephone from 1993.
The Clipper chip was the flagship component of a controversial National Security Agency-designed "key escrow" cryptography scheme, in which intercepted encrypted traffic could be decrypted easily by law enforcement or intelligence agencies for surveillance purposes. The program was extremely controversial and, in the end, not a success. Aside from the obvious fundamental problems (the security risks of having a large database of citizen's keys, the need to implement cryptography in expensive secret hardware, etc), the Clipper architecture had technical flaws that made it possible to circumvent the escrow features and preclude the possibility of law enforcement access. (See "Protocol Failure in the Escrowed Encryption Standard" [pdf format], for details.)
AT&T (my employer at the time) was the first (and ultimately only) company to produce a product based on the ill-fated system. The AT&T TSD-3600, announced in 1992, was a voice encryption device designed to be installed in a standard telephone (between the phone base and the handset). Calls placed to other TSD-3600-equipped telephones could be automatically digitized and encrypted, making eavesdropping on the conversation (by legal or illegal means) effectively infeasible. When the US government learned of AT&T's plans to market the device, it worried that criminals might used them to thwart wiretaps. Plans for a new encryption system with a wiretap backdoor were hurriedly drawn up by the NSA, and AT&T was persuaded to replace the regular (non-escrowed) DES-based encryption scheme in the original TSD product with the new system, called the Clipper chip. The Clipper-based model TSD-3600E hit the market in 1993. As incentive for AT&T's cooperation, the government agreed to purchase a significant quantity of Clipper-equipped TSD-3600Es, which sold for over $1000 each in quantity.
Hobbled by the controversial key escrow features and the high retail price, the government ended up being the TSD's only major customer, and even most of the units they bought sat unopened in storage for over ten years. AT&T, for its part, eventually sold off the division that produced the product.
I'm aware of five different TSD-3600 models produced between 1992 and the product's cancellation, differing in the cipher algorithm used. The TSD-3600D was the original, using standard DES with a 56 bit key. (These were quickly recalled and disappeared from the market after Clipper was announced). The 3600F was an exportable model that used a proprietary 40 bit cipher that, I was told, was "embarassingly" weak even given the short key. The 3600P used a proprietary 56 bit cipher similar to DES (but not inter-operable with the 3600D). The 3600E was the first controversial key escrowed model, with the then-classified Skipjack cipher and key escrow features implemented on a tamper-resistant MYK-78T Clipper chip. A later model, the 3600S, included a Clipper chip but would also downgrade (or upgrade, depending on your opinion of key escrow) to the F or P ciphers when communicating with those models. All five models use a Diffie-Hellman key exchange (768 bit, if I recall correctly) to establish a session key, a 4 character hash of which is displayed on each unit's LCD. To detect "man-in-the-middle" attacks, users could verify (by voice) that their displayed hashes matched.
This pictures shows the 1/2 inch square MYK-78T Clipper encryption chip, as installed on the TSD-3600E main circuit board.
Nikkor AM-120mm/5.6, Sinar P, BetterLight Super 6K-HS. Full resolution (6000x8000) version available.
Disclaimer: No emulsions were harmed in the making of this image.
Sample image taken with an Olympus PEN EP5 fitted with its M Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R kit lens. These samples and comparisons are part of my EP5 review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Olympus_PEN_E-P5/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Sample image taken with a Canon ELPH 330 HS / IXUS 255 HS. These samples and comparisons are part of my ELPH 330 HS / IXUS 255 HS review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_ELPH_330_HS_IX...
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
The image of electronic circuit board
You can find and purchase/license this image and other my images at high resolution at microstosk agencies.
See links to my portfolios on my homepage: skobrik.com
22/03/09
As you are reading this deep inside your computer a very similar bundle of chips* are conscientiously working hard to help produce this image and text in front of your face. Without the mind numbingly huge numbers of transistors that exist in every PC, flickr and the whole internet would not exist... and we would have a lot more time to do other stuff :D
I seem to be having difficulty finding the mental focus (along with my macro focus) for my 365 at the moment. The shots I have been taking over the last week or seem to have been a lot harder to push forth into the world than I found previously. I guess it’s one of the quirks of this kind of project. Although I guess spending more time surfing flickr than I spend sleeping has something to do with it ; )~
This shot is not so much out of focus, it was more that I had great difficulty deciding where to focus. The narrow slit of DOF (depth of field) that this lens setup offers had me struggling exactly where to put the sweet spot. In the end I settled on the connection strip along the edge.
The Exif is all wrong on this shot I took it with an M42 Miranda 80-200mm f/3.5 macro lens plus 61mm of M42 extension tubes. The lens was set at f/22 and I reckon that it’s giving me a macro ratio of about 1:1.5 ish. I bought the lens second hand for £5 a few weeks ago. The light is from my flash on a TTL flash cord to the top of the frame.
Lightroom: direct positive preset, punch preset, push the contrast (I think I was getting quite a lot of flare and that seems to reduce the contrast), use lots of the recovery tool, USM sharpen, save to JPG
(* if you are interested this is a single 1Gb stick of DDR2-800, aka PC2 6400 SDRAM )
Sample image taken with a Canon EOS M. These samples and comparisons are part of my EOS M review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_EOS_M/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Sample image taken with a Sony Cybershot HX300. These samples and comparisons are part of my HX300 review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Cyber-shot_HX300/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Canon PowerShot S110 sample image
Sample image taken with a Canon PowerShot S110. These samples and comparisons are part of my PowerShot S110 review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_S110/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from
Sample image taken with a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS. These samples and comparisons are part of my PowerShot SX50 HS review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_SX50_HS/
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from Cameralabs.com
Sample image taken with a Sony Cyber-shot HX50V. These samples and comparisons are part of my Cyber-shot HX50V review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Cyber-shot_HX50V
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Sample image taken with a Sony Cyber-shot HX50V. These samples and comparisons are part of my Cyber-shot HX50V review at:
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Cyber-shot_HX50V
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from www.cameralabs.com/
Sample image taken with the Canon PowerShot ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS.
See my ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS review for full details! This includes full image quality results and sample videos.
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_ELPH_310_HS_IX...
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from Cameralabs.com
Sample image taken with the Canon PowerShot ELPH 510 HS / IXUS 1100 HS.
See my ELPH 510 HS / IXUS 1100 HS review for full details! This includes full image quality results and sample videos.
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_ELPH_510_HS_IX...
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from Cameralabs.com
Sample image taken with the Canon ELPH 100 HS / IXUS 115 HS.
See my ELPH 100 HS / IXUS 115 HS review for full details! This includes full image quality results and sample videos.
www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon_PowerShot_ELPH_100_HS_IX...
Feel free to download the original image for evaluation on your own computer or printer, but please don't use it on another website or publication without permission from Cameralabs.com