RE: [dvd-discuss] [declan@well.com: FC: Congress considers encryption restrictions in response to attacks]

["erik" <erik(at)neurosis.org>]

This is not a surprise to many of us I'm sure, but what about
the flip side of the coin?

The major western nations have intercept capabilities, but what
about their enemies?  Is it possible that two people talking on ICQ,
or exchanging opinions by way of Email, could possibly divulge information
that an attacker could use?  

At this time in the state of world affairs, the use of crypto by the
populace should be made mandatory to protect state interest (and 
"human intelligence"), not restricting the use or making it "easy" for
backdoor interception. 

We talk about realworld security in the airports, on the streets and
everywhere else, but what about digital security?

Perhaps it's time to discuss the implementation and mandatory use of
a national PKI.

Just my 2 cents.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu]On Behalf Of
> lists@politechbot.com
> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 2:33 PM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: [dvd-discuss] [declan@well.com: FC: Congress considers
> encryption restrictions in response to attacks]
> 
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> -----
> 
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
> Subject: FC: Congress considers encryption restrictions in 
> response to attacks
> To: politech@politechbot.com
> Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 17:03:01 -0400
> X-URL: http://www.mccullagh.org/
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> 
> 
> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html
>    
>    Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws
>    By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
>    1:45 p.m. Sep. 13, 2001 PDT
>    
>    WASHINGTON -- The encryption wars have begun.
>    
>    For nearly a decade, privacy mavens have been worrying that a
>    terrorist attack could prompt Congress to ban
>    communications-scrambling products that frustrate both police wiretaps
>    and U.S. intelligence agencies.
>    
>    Tuesday's catastrophe, which shed more blood on American soil than any
>    event since the Civil War, appears to have started that process.
>    
>    Some politicians and defense hawks are warning that extremists such as
>    Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials say is a crypto-aficionado and the
>    top suspect in Tuesday's attacks, enjoy unfettered access to
>    privacy-protecting software and hardware that render their
>    communications unintelligible to eavesdroppers.
>    
>    In a floor speech on Thursday, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire)
>    called for a global prohibition on encryption products without
>    backdoors for government surveillance.
>    
>    "This is something that we need international cooperation on and we
>    need to have movement on in order to get the information that allows
>    us to anticipate and prevent what occurred in New York and in
>    Washington," Gregg said, according to a copy of his remarks that an
>    aide provided.
>    
>    President Clinton appointed an ambassador-rank official, David Aaron,
>    to try this approach, but eventually the administration abandoned the
>    project.
>    
>    Gregg said encryption makers "have as much at risk as we have at risk
>    as a nation, and they should understand that as a matter of
>    citizenship, they have an obligation" to include decryption methods
>    for government agents. Gregg, who previously headed the appropriations
>    committee overseeing the Justice Department, said that such access
>    would only take place with "court oversight."
>    
>    [...]
>   
>    Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, a hawkish think tank
>    that has won accolades from all recent Republican presidents, says
>    that this week's terrorist attacks demonstrate the government must be
>    able to penetrate communications it intercepts.
>    
>    "I'm certainly of the view that we need to let the U.S. government
>    have access to encrypted material under appropriate circumstances and
>    regulations," says Gaffney, an assistant secretary of defense under
>    President Reagan.
> 
>    [...]
> 
> 
> 
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