RE: RFC 2527 Physical Security Controls Question

[Stephen Kent <kent@xxxxxxx>]

John,

I don't mean to sound like a sales person, but the observations you 
made were part of what motivated the design of the SafeKeyper in the 
early 90s, as a CA crypto module.  To the extent that one can address 
physical security concerns with compact, technical security 
solutions, a lot of money can be saved, and a lot of attacks can be 
thwarted.   FIPS 140-1 does not address all of the concerns that are 
now part of the open literature, even at levels 3 and 4.  I expect 
140-2 will up the ante on evaluation to better address some of these 
attacks.  Fortunately, we designed our module to be resistant to such 
attacks because of our experience in the military crypto arena, and 
our understanding of what one might do with sufficient resources and 
expertise ...

Steve