[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       best-of-security
Subject:    FBI Files: Clipper Must be Mandatory (fwd)
From:       Julian Assange <proff () suburbia ! net>
Date:       1995-08-21 15:55:52
[Download RAW message or body]

Forwarded message:
>From owner-sea-list@panix.com Tue Aug 22 00:54:10 1995
Message-Id: <199508211434.KAA28090@panix3.panix.com>
Subject: FBI Files: Clipper Must be Mandatory (fwd)
To: sea-legal@panix.com, sea-list@panix.com
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 10:34:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: simona@panix.com (Simona Nass)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 3449      

The other shoe dropped. -S.

Forwarded message:
>To: (Recipient list suppressed)
>From: Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>
>Subject: FBI Files: Clipper Must be Mandatory
>
>
>
>FOR RELEASE:  August 16, 1995, 2:00 p.m. EST
>
>
>     WASHINGTON, DC - Newly-released government documents show 
>that key federal agencies concluded more than two years ago that 
>the "Clipper Chip" encryption initiative will only succeed if 
>alternative security techniques are outlawed.  The Electronic 
>Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained the documents from the 
>Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Freedom of Information 
>Act.  EPIC, a non-profit research group, received hundreds of 
>pages of material from FBI files concerning Clipper and 
>cryptography.
>
>     The conclusions contained in the documents appear to conflict 
>with frequent Administration claims that use of Clipper technology 
>will remain "voluntary."  Critics of the government's initiative, 
>including EPIC, have long maintained that the Clipper "key-escrow 
>encryption" technique would only serve its stated purpose if made 
>mandatory.  According to the FBI documents, that view is shared by 
>the Bureau, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department 
>of Justice (DOJ).
>
>     In a "briefing document" titled "Encryption: The Threat, 
>Applications and Potential Solutions," and sent to the National 
>Security Council in February 1993, the FBI, NSA and DOJ concluded 
>that:
>
>     Technical solutions, such as they are, will only work if 
>     they are incorporated into *all* encryption products.  
>     To ensure that this occurs, legislation mandating the 
>     use of Government-approved encryption products or 
>     adherence to Government encryption criteria is required.
>
>     Likewise, an undated FBI report titled "Impact of Emerging 
>Telecommunications Technologies on Law Enforcement" observes that 
>"[a]lthough the export of encryption products by the United States 
>is controlled, domestic use is not regulated."  The report 
>concludes that "a national policy embodied in legislation is 
>needed."  Such a policy, according to the FBI, must ensure "real-
>time decryption by law enforcement" and "prohibit[] cryptography 
>that cannot meet the Government standard."
>
>     The FBI conclusions stand in stark contrast to public 
>assurances that the government does not intend to prohibit the use 
>of non-escrowed encryption.  Testifying before a Senate Judiciary 
>Subcommittee on May 3, 1994, Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann 
>Harris asserted that:
>
>     As the Administration has made clear on a number of 
>     occasions, the key-escrow encryption initiative is a 
>     voluntary one; we have absolutely no intention of 
>     mandating private use of a particular kind of 
>     cryptography, nor of criminalizing the private use of 
>     certain kinds of cryptography.
>
>      According to EPIC Legal Counsel David Sobel, the newly-
>disclosed information "demonstrates that the architects of the 
>Clipper program -- NSA and the FBI -- have always recognized that 
>key-escrow must eventually be mandated.  As privacy advocates and 
>industry have always said, Clipper does nothing for law 
>enforcement unless the alternatives are outlawed."
>
>     Scanned images of several key documents are available via the 
>World Wide Web at the EPIC Home Page:
>
>          http://www.epic.org/crypto/ban/fbi_dox/
>
>

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]