SAFE Encryption Bill Re-Introduced
(02/25/99, 7:59 p.m. ET)
By Mary Mosquera, TechWeb
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A bill introduced Thursday to strengthen security of online transmissions and reform export controls of strong-encryption products stands a better chance of passing Congress this year, its chief sponsors said.
The Security and Freedom Through Encryption act, or SAFE, relaxes export controls on U.S. encryption products. Encryption software scrambles data so it is unreadable for anyone but the intended receiver.
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), ensures that U.S. consumers have the right to choose any type of encryption to protect their confidential information and prohibits the government from requiring a key to U.S. consumers' computer systems.
National security and law-enforcement groups that feared terrorists and criminals would use secure transmissions to further their activities succeeded in blocking passage of the legislation last year. Besides foreign export controls, Goodlatte said he is concerned about the erosion of unlimited access to strong encryption at home.
"The FBI is attempting to use the export-control laws toward a mandatory key recovery domestically," he said. "It would be like bringing a key to your house to the neighborhood police station with the promise they wouldn't use it without your permission, and trusting them to do that," he added. "The No. 1 reason for this encryption legislation is preventing electronic crime," Goodlatte said. Software that encrypts data ensures confidentiality of financial transactions, medical records, and transmission of credit card numbers when doing business over the Internet. "Encryption is like putting dead bolts on computers," he said. Use of the secure software increases consumer confidence in doing business online, thus promoting e-commerce.
The legislation will also create more U.S. jobs because fewer export controls will keep orders for strong encryption products with American companies. About 75 percent of the world's software is generated in the United States. But with current controls restricting export of strong secure products, U.S. companies have lost one third of their market share in encryption software in the past year, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a SAFE sponsor.
"Encryption is a fact of life," Goodlatte said. The progress the Clinton administration has made in gradually peeling away some export restrictions is an improvement, but doesn't go far enough.
The United States permits export of encryption products of up to 56 bits without handing over a key to unscramble data but the industry norm is 128 bits, and companies can find that easily in other countries. As a result, the U.S. competitive edge is eroding, Goodlatte said.
Last year, the SAFE act passed through several House committees, albeit with competing models, but was blocked at the powerful Rules committee. This year's version of the encryption legislation has a good chance of passing the full House of Representatives, Lofgren said.
For one, the key players have changed, including the selection of Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), who supports the bill, as chairman of the Rules committee. SAFE is being introduced this year with the bipartisan backing of 205 House members, including several in leadership positions.
The new SAFE act addresses some national-security issues and details when export controls are appropriate. It also stipulates penalties for misuse of encryption. But to strengthen privacy, the legislation preemptively forbids requiring a key-recovery system from companies wanting to do business with the government, and holds that the use of encryption by itself cannot be a basis for law enforcement to seek a search warrant or wiretap. <Picture: TW> |
