A new approach to software key escrow encryption

The major deficiency ascribed to key escrow techniques when they are implemented solely in software is that they can be bypassed or subverted relatively easily and thus cannot be relied upon to meet the objectives of law enforcement that motivate the Clipper Initiative. Further, no technique has been proposed that addresses the issues associated with the implementation of a classified encyption algorithm, such as the Skipjack algorithm embodied in the Clipper chip, in a widely used software product.