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Computer titans urge Clinton drop scrambling curbs
Reuters Story - June 04, 1997 19:45
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By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuter) - Computer industry captains
called on President Bill Clinton on Wednesday to drop efforts
to regulate data-scrambling technologies, a move the FBI warned
would cripple law enforcement and leave the country more
vulnerable to terrorism.
In an open letter to Clinton, William Gates, chairman ond
chief executive officer of Microsoft , and 12 other
industry titans said U.S. competitiveness in electronic
commerce was at stake in the debate.
"Network users must have confidence that their
communications, whether personal letters, financial
transactions or sensitive business information, are secure and
private," they wrote.
Access to computer programs with strong data-scrambling, or
encryption, capabilities was "critical to providing this
confidence," said the corporate chiefs who banded together as
the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group.
Even as they argued at a news conference against export
controls on encryption programs, FBI Director Louis Freeh told
Congress that the United States was at an "historical
crossroads" on the issue.
"Uncrackable encryption will allow drug lords, terrorists,
and even gangs to communicate with impunity," Freeh told a
Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the FBI.
He said the government needed a kind of mathematical "key
recovery" system in which a spare key, or decoder, for
encrypted information is held in escrow by a trusted third
party.
In theory this sort of escrowed "key" would give law
enforcement authorities the ultimate ability to unscramble
communications only if authorized to do so by a court.
"Other than some kind of key recovery system, there is no
technicial solution," Freeh testified. He said the widespread
use of strong encryption without an escrowed key "will
devastate our ability to fight crime and prevent terrorism."
"If public policymakers act wisely, the safety of all
Americans will be enhanced for decades to come. But if narrow
interests prevail, law enforcement will be unable to provide
the level of protection that people in a democracy properly
expect and deserve," Freeh said.
In their letter to Clinton, the computer chiefs said
governments should not impose import or export controls on
encryption products nor "attempt to force use of
government-mandated key management infrastructures."
Although no laws stop Americans from using any type of
data-scrambling program within the United States, export
regulations let companies export only a relatively weak form of
encryption.
Earlier this year the Clinton administration began allowing
companies to export stronger encryption technology so long at
it involved a spare key, possibly even held outside the United
States. Congress is considering several bills, strongly backed
by the software industry, to all but eliminate the export
controls.
In addition to Miscrosoft's Gates, signing the letter to
Clinton were the heads of Adobe Systems, Autodesk, Bentley
Systems, Compaq, Intel, SCO, Symantec, Claris, Digital
Equipment, Lotus Development, Novell and Sybase. |
