Where Industry and Security Intersect
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OPEN SESSION ( July 25, 2007 ):
1. The ISTAC meeting opened with introductions and solicitation of comments from the public. There were no comments from the public. Approximately 45 people were in attendance.
2. Joe Young of BIS conducted elections for chairperson(s). Jonathan Wise and Henry Brandt were re-elected as co-chairs.
3. Landgrave Smith of IDA presented on information technology security in the MCTL. This presentation included a brief overview of IDA’s role in developing the MCTL (emphasis on items and technology available now or within five years) and DSTL (emphasis on items and technology estimated to be available in 5-25 years). It was noted that, except in the area of encryption, critical parameter levels in the MCTL are set well beyond the level of commodity commercial products.
4. Michael Angelo of NetIQ presented an overview of encryption technology and trends. Topics covered included public- vs. private-key encryption, digital signatures, hashing and validation. Virtual environments and encryption key management were suggested to be of possible interest relative to encryption export controls and may warrant analysis/consideration in the future. As this presentation was informational only, no further action was required.
5. Paul Vancil of AMD presented an overview of IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface), a protocol for remote server management and remote access. A critical feature of remote management is that it operates through out-of-band access (i.e., using separate hardware), and is thus separate from the security protocols of the server that is being controlled. As IPMS evolved, more remote access was added and the current version (IPMI Advanced Remote Access) provides the ability to do remotely anything that can be done at the server terminal interface because if has KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) redirect. The emerging new standards to replace IPMI are DASH (desktop mobile) and SMASH (server management). In both, the goal is to have the out-of-band stack be able to perform everything that can be done in-band. Encryption is employed in IPMI products for platform security. The conclusion is that encryption pertaining to remote server management is endemic because it is embedded.
6. Henry Brandt of IBM (substituting for Greg Taylor of Intel) presented on implications to CTP calculations of coprocessors and aggregation. This presentation was motivated by Intel’s Geneseo architecture for interconnection of multi-core processors, but more broadly addressed the question of whether and how accelerators should be handled in calculating APP of a system. Three types of accelerators were identified: math accelerators (for floating point), graphics processors (for real-time response), and ASICs (for embedded algorithms). The question of how to handle FPGA accelerators in APP calculations remains unresolved and it was decided at a working group should address this; Henry Brandt will lead that group.
7. There was a discussion of draft Wassenaar proposals that industry has submitted, or plans to submit, to BIS for possible consideration in 2008. Joe Young reminded the group that proposals—even if only in minimal draft form—should be submitted to BIS no later than mid-August. Key points of this discussion were:
-Introduction of a proposal to decontrol encryption for Provisioning (the “P” in OAM&P).
-Introduction of a proposal to increase the current bit-length thresholds by a factor of two. Frank Quick commented that the current thresholds are obsolete and that industry no longer designs to them.
-Introduction of a proposal to decontrol certain short-range wireless devices, such as Bluetooth, having nominal transmission range not exceeding 100 m. It was noted that transmission range may be undesirable for use as a control parameter because it is highly subject to environmental factors and can be increased through the use of external antennae. It was also suggested that this proposal could be standards-based. One objection to this approach was that it could become unmanageable in the face of a proliferation of standards. A counterargument was that a standards-based approach would be quite manageable if defined at a sufficiently high level (e.g., wireless devices based on any 802.11 standard).
-Introduction of a proposal to delete 4D003
-Introduction of a proposal to delete 4A003.g.
-Jonathan Wise stated that he would be introducing three proposals:
--To change the phrase “Category 5 – Part 1”, which appears in the official Wassenaar control language in paragraphs 5.B.1.a, 5.D.1.a and 5.E.1.a to “5.A.1.” The purpose of this proposal is to clarify the scope of control.
--To limit the optical amplification control of 5.B.1.b.2 to that using praseodymium-doped fibers, to align it with the control of 5.E.1.c.2.b.
--To raise the WDM threshold in 5.E.1.c.2.d from 8 carrier/window to 40 carrier/window.
-Al Courduff commented that relaxation of controls on A/D converters >=14 bit cannot be considered in 2008.
-Roz also asked whether re-evaluation of 5.E.1.c.1 was needed. It had been decided at the April 2007 meeting that there is not yet technical justification for relaxation to the current 15 Gb/s threshold, but that we would continue to monitor developments.
8. There was a discussion of the CCL Comprehensive Review exercise.
-A draft of the Cat 5 – Part 1 review has been circulated to the ISTAC.
-The draft reviews of the other sections (Cat 3A, Cat 3B/3C, Cat 4 and Cat 5-Part 2) are still in process and will be circulated to the ISTAC when they are finished.
-Roz Thomsen suggested that this review might consider/suggest some that certain ECCNs might be moved to other categories where they would fit more naturally, and that portions of Categories 3, 4 and 5 might be merged into a new Information Technology category. It was noted that such changes might encounter resistance from exporters, who are familiar with the current arrangement of ECCNs. Nevertheless, it was agreed that if this proposal were to be presented to the ISTAC, it would be included in the final report.
9. The open session was adjourned.