IP: more unsettling crypto reportage

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 15:47:00 -0800
From: mech () eff org (Stanton McCandlish)


<snippets>


An new proposal by a computer networking industry group aims to break
a long-standing logjam with the Clinton administration over
data-scrambling technologies. The plan would protect the privacy of
secret communications sent over the Net while giving law enforcement
agencies access to scrambled, or encrypted, information.


The group, led by Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Network Associates (NETA),
and including companies such as Sun Microsystems (SUNW) and
Hewlett-Packard (HWP), proposes placing a "backdoor" into routers --
the actual boxes that shuffle data across the Internet -- and the
software that controls them.


The group characterizes its proposal as a "private doorbell," whereby
law enforcement, armed with a court order, can ask a network
administrator to place what amounts to a wiretap on data that passes
through a switch.


"The approach allows the customer to keep control over the access, and
be aware of the access at the network operator level," said Kelly
Blough, director of government relations with Network Associates. "It
is more of a doorbell approach that gives our customers a little more
of a feeling of security," Blough said.


Eight out of the 13 companies in the group have applied for encryption
licensing arrangements based on the technology, and two more are
expected to apply for those export permits before the end of this
week.


The FBI is pleased with the plan.


"If the router is in the possession of a third party such as an
Internet service provider, that would very much meet the needs of law
enforcement," said FBI spokesman Barry Smith. "As long as we can gain
plaintext [or unscrambled] access to encrypted communications that are
criminal related ... with a court order ... without relying on the
individuals that are engaging in the illegal activity."


<end snippets>


Full article at:
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/13658.html


I sent the author a note that the first para of the story is oxymoronic.





--
Stanton McCandlish      mech () eff org       http://www.eff.org/~mech
Program Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
voice: +1 415 436 9333 x105   fax: +1 415 436 9333
PGPfone: 204.253.162.21