CLIPPER

An integrated microcircuit (in MYK-7x series manufactured by Mykotronx, Inc.) that implements SKIPJACK, has a non-deterministic random number generator, and supports key escrow. (See: Escrowed Encryption Standard. Compare: CLIPPER.)

Tutorial: The chip was mainly intended for protecting telecommunications over the public switched network. The key escrow scheme for the chip involves a SKIPJACK key that is common to all chips and that protects the unique serial number of the chip, and a second SKIPJACK key unique to the chip that protects all data encrypted by the chip. The second key is escrowed as split key components held by NIST and the U.S. Treasury Department.