Articlehighly credibleBrowse result
SKIPJACK was not the same thing as Clipper. It was the engine inside Clipper. That distinction matters because the real controversy of the era was never only about one cipher. It was about whether strong encryption would remain acceptable to the government only if the government kept a built-in path back in.
Declassified / Nsa/historical record/2026-03-31
Articlehighly credibleBrowse result
NSA-approved encryption has never meant just one thing. At different times it has meant federally standardized encryption, export-licensed commercial encryption, escrow-enabled government access, and high-assurance algorithms approved for national security systems. This entry explains why those meanings kept colliding with privacy.
Declassified / Nsa/historical record/2026-03-30