The Clipper Chip

Introduction

The Clipper Chip, usually referred to as the MYK-78, is “a chipset that was promoted and designed by the NSA as an encryption device that secured “voice and data messages”. Including a built-in backdoor, its intentions were to ‘allow Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials the ability to decode intercepted voice and data transmissions.’ It was planned to be adopted by telecommunications companies for voice transmission. Introduced in 1993, it was entirely defunct by 1996.” (1). It soon became a problem because the cryptographic community complained that it could not be accurately accessible and comprehended by the public due to the Skipjack algorithm being secretly classified(2). Ultimately, the Government wanted to put a backdoor into your phone but people care too much about personal privacy for it to ever happen. With this being said, in 1996, the chip was no more.

The Original Intentions

Originally, the clipper chip was intended to be used in security communication devices like crypto phones. This would be quite helpful when a call needed to be protected from intercepting. By using algorithms and cryptographic keys to encrypt and decrypt the signals, it successfully did just that. However, the part about it being ‘secure’ didn’t really apply to the government. With this clipper chip, “device manufacturers were required to surrender the cryptographic keys to the government. Obviously, the intent was to allow intelligence and law enforcement agencies such as the CIA and FBI to decrypt voice calls for surveillance purposes” (2). Without flat-out saying it, this violates the Fourth Amendment which reads, ‘the Fourth Amendment protects the people from any unreasonable searches by the government’. To protect the people, “he developers agreed the cryptographic key of each Clipper chip would be held in escrow jointly by two federal agencies. Essentially they split the Unit Key into two parts, and each half would be given to one of the agencies. Reconstructing the actual unit key required accessing the database of both agencies, and then putting the halves back together using special software” (2). Soon after the announcing of clipper chip, multiple privacy rights organizations heavily opposed clipper chip’s intended purpose.

Getting Backfired

After organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center spoke out opposing this proposal, it went as far as the New York Times expressed the technologists at Silicon Valley also backlashing against this. The quote, directly taken from the article, reads, “the Cypherpunks consider the Clipper the lever that Big Brother is using to pry into the conversations, messages and transactions of the computer age. These high-tech Paul Reveres are trying to mobilize America against the evil portent of a ‘cyberspace police state,’ as one of their Internet jeremiads put it. Joining them in the battle is a formidable force, including almost all of the communications and computer industries, many members of Congress and political columnists of all stripes” (2). However; the Clinton White House argued this by explaining how the clipper chip would be an essential tool for law enforcement. The cryptographic community opposed against this by stating that it could not be potentially flawed by the public due tot he algorithm that made it classified. “This could make secure communication equipment devices not as secure as advertised, impacting businesses and individuals who would rely on them” (2). Having the government seek a successful try in a potential backdoor to the public’s phones, it was shutdown in 1996.

The Outcome

AT&T Bell was the first and only company that produced a device based on the clipper chip. One year later, a researcher at AT&T, Matt Blaze, published a major flaw that could potentially allow any malicious party to tamper with the devices software. This seemed to be the last negative post for good, as the clipper chip was no longer proposed after 1996. Therefore, AT&T was the first and only company to implement a clipper chip.

-Rachel Leone

References

(1) The clipper chip. The Clipper Chip. (n.d.). https://archive.epic.org/crypto/clipper/

(2) Clipper chip: How the government wanted to put a backdoor in your phone. Exabeam. (2019, April 17). https://www.exabeam.com/information-security/clipper-chip/#:~:text=The%20cryptographic%20community%20also%20complained,who%20would%20rely%20on%20them.

(3) Levy, S. (1994, June 12). Battle of the clipper chip. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/12/magazine/battle-of-the-clipper-chip.html (the whole blog is based off of this).