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IP: Janet Reno reports on crypto-negotiations with industry
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 20:34:14 -0500
***** http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/afternoon/0,1012,1864,00.html The Netly News / Afternoon Line March 31, 1998 Gregg Shorthand Not many bureaucrats are as lucky as Attorney General Janet Reno. When she showed up at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this morning, Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) offered to help her solve such knotty problems as encryption, wiretapping, and the best way to fatten the Justice Department's already immense budget. Asked Gregg: "Do you need significantly more resources in this area?" FBI Director Louis Freeh's reply was unsurprising. "We do need resources," he said, to deal with mushrooming hacker threats. Gregg also asked how close the Justice Department was to closing a deal with the computer industry -- presumably the Americans for Computer Privacy coalition -- on compromise encryption legislation that some advocates fret will trade away Americans' privacy. "People need to understand that if you don't solve the encryption issue, the country's basically open to all sorts of threats, terrorist threat and obviously drug dealers," Gregg warned -- doubtless in reference to the cartels currently dealing crack over at freebase.com. How were the talks progressing? "I think we have a lot of work to do," Freeh replied. Reno said she's only "asking that our authority be adopted to modern technology" by banning encryption products without backdoors for government surveillance. Right -- the same authority that says you have to make an extra set of keys to your house in case the feds feel like dropping by unannounced. Reno has asked Congress to delay voting on all crypto bills during the negotiations, which she predicted will last two months. --By Declan McCullagh/Washington
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