\title{Civilian Cryptography and the Promise of Decentralization}

\author{{\em Patrick Juola} \\
Oxford University \\
{\tt patrick.juola@psy.ox.ac.uk } 
\and
{\em Jonathan Reid} \\ 
{\tt reidj@rintintin.Colorado.EDU}}


\begin{abstract}

Given the ever-increasing role of computers in United States society,
and particularly in the commercial infrastructure of the United States,
the vulnerability of computer networks, both private and public, is
a potential national security weakness.  Cryptographic technology
can provide a way of fixing these weaknesses.
Detailed threat analysis, however, shows that the conventional
cryptographic model of standard and centralized cryptographic
systems, as typified by the Capstone chip or the German Enigma, is
more vulnerable to likely threats than is a decentralized system
without a single-point vulnerability.

\end{abstract}