From: C-reuters@clari.net (Reuter / Aaron Pressman) Newsgroups: clari.tw.computers.pc.software,clari.tw.computers.misc,clari.usa.gov.misc,clari.usa.law.misc,clari.tw.top Subject: Senators call for mandatory US encryption controls Organization: Copyright 1997 by Reuters Lines: 59 Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 18:22:22 PDT Expires: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 16:20:30 PDT ACategory: financial Slugword: COMPUTERS-ENCRYPTION Threadword: computers Priority: daily Xref: ai-lab clari.tw.computers.pc.software:2765 clari.tw.computers.misc:2407 clari.usa.gov.misc:5052 clari.usa.law.misc:6996 clari.tw.top:9549 WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuter) - Several senators, supported by FBI chief Louis Freeh, said Wednesday they would favor imposing domestic limits on computer encoding technology, shocking opponents of current limits on its export. Encryption programs, which scramble information and render it unreadable without a password or software "key," have become an increasingly important means of securing electronic commerce and communications. But the scrambling capability can also be used by criminals to hide their dealings from law enforcement agencies. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she would favor requiring manufacturers of encryption products to include features allowing the government to decode any message by recovering the software keys. "Nothing other than some kind of mandatory key recovery really does the job," the California Democrat said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee's technology, terrorism and government information subcommittee. "The public safety issue is a paramount one." Sen. Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the terrorism subcommittee, added he was "in complete agreement." Freeh told the subcommittee he would also favor mandatory key recovery, but added that such a policy was probably unattainable given the strong opposition from other lawmakers and interest groups. "Mandatory key recovery, to the extent that it was implemented, would be the best law enforcement solution," Freeh said. As a lesser step, Freeh suggested legislation requiring manufacturers to include key recovery features without immediately requiring users to turn on the features. No opponents of the current limits on export of encryption technology spoke at the hearing. Afterwards, some said they were shocked by the discussion. "It was really shocking to hear how casually senators and the FBI director talked about imposing domestic controls," said Alan Davidson, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil rights group. "They've crossed a new line in this debate." "It appears that Senator Feinstein wants a Constitution-free zone for the Internet," said David Banisar, staff counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, another civil rights group that focuses on the Internet. Software companies also oppose mandatory key recovery schemes, arguing they are unworkable, expensive and not required by customers and that they hurt the ability to compete with foreign companies not restrained by U.S. limits. The Senate is considering a bill sponsored by Arizona Republican John McCain and Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey that would slightly relax export controls while providing strong incentives to promote the use of key recovery within the United States. The bill was approved by the Commerce Committee in June but growing opposition, including from Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, may derail the proposal. -=-=- Want to tell us what you think about the ClariNews? Please feel free to <> .