September 14, 1999
By JERI CLAUSING
Administration Plans to Loosen
Encryption Restrictions
ASHINGTON -- The Clinton Administration, facing mounting
pressure to eliminate controls on the export of encryption
technology, is preparing to announce a further loosening of the
controversial restrictions.
The planned changes come on the heels of a report from a special
presidential advisory committee recommending the White House
abandon nearly all export controls on software that protects Internet
communications.
They also come as the House is preparing
to debate a bill that would lift most controls
on the export of products intended to keep
computer communications and transactions
secure.
William Reinsch, the Undersecretary of
Commerce and President Clinton's point
man on encryption policy, declined to
comment on the upcoming announcement
or the advisory committee's report, which
has not been made public. But he said the
Administration's new policy would be
announced by September 16. The changes, he said, are the "result of our
own policy review," although he did acknowledge that the advisory
commission report "was valuable input into that."
That upcoming policy change comes exactly one year after Vice
President Al Gore first announced the Administration was lifting controls
on the export of strong encryption to certain business sectors, like banks
and insurance companies, and was providing limited export relief for
mass market products.
At the time, Gore promised the Administration would review the controls
again within a year. Since then, the Administration has come under
continued pressure to move even further, both from Congress and the
President's encryption advisory panel.
In June, the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption sent
the White House a report recommending the Administration loosen its
restrictions on encryption technology to allow for the export of consumer
products based on a 128-bit key. That is significantly stronger than the
current limit on encryption products exempt from control.
The report also recommended allowing the export of a broad range of
encryption products to online merchants who need powerful security
systems to do business; eliminating approval requirements on exports to
countries that "do not present a significant national security concern," and
giving preferential treatment to exports aimed at utilities,
telecommunications companies and other infrastructure sectors at risk of
hacking attacks.
White House and Commerce Department officials are keeping quiet
about how far the policy changes will go. But if the changes reflect
recommendations made in the advisory panel's report, it would move the
Administration much closer to ending its years-long battle with the
high-tech industry. Technology executives say they are losing their lead to
companies in countries without export restrictions.
The Administration has resisted calls
to eliminate the restrictions because
of strong opposition from the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and other law
enforcement agencies. Those groups
have been pushing tying any easing of
export restrictions to mandates that
software developers develop "spare
keys" so law officers can easily
unlock scrambled data and
communications when they suspect a crime is being committed.
Stewart Baker, a member of the advisory panel and former counsel to
the National Security Agency, characterized the committee's report as
"the most sweeping set of liberalizations that have ever been
recommended by a government advisory body."
Although some who have been fighting the Administration's export
controls doubt the planned changes will go far enough to effect a truce
with House and Senate leaders pushing legislation to eliminate export
controls entirely, Baker said he remained optimistic that substantial
revisions would still be made.
"I think it's in play," said Baker. "There's still some possibility that this will
turn out to be a smaller package than some might hope, but it's still
open."
Ed Gillespie, executive director of Americans for Computer Privacy, a
coalition of high-tech and civil libertarian groups that have for years been
pushing for an elimination of all export controls on data-scrambling
technology, said adoption of the advisory committee report by the White
House would be significant.
"But we don't know what to expect at this point. We're watching like
everyone else," he said. "If it's good, great. If not, we'll continue to
advocate change."
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