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[FYI] U.S.: Senator calls for encryption crackdown



http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2812463-2,00.html

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Senator calls for encryption crackdown  

By Wendy McAuliffe, ZDNet (UK)  

September 14, 2001 11:33 AM PT  

URL: 
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2812463,00.html?chkpt=z 
dnnp1tp02  

The horror of Tuesday's coordinated attacks on the commercial and 
military centers of America has prompted the U.S. Congress to call 
for a global ban on "uncrackable" encryption products.  

[...]

Gregg is now proposing that U.S. government officials have access to 
decryption tools when the case is deemed to be a matter of national 
security. He said that the developers of encryption products "have as 
much at risk as we have at risk as a nation, and they should 
understand that as a matter of citizenship, they have an obligation" 
to produce government decryption products. In order to safeguard the 
privacy of innocent citizens, the interception of encrypted 
communications would only take place with "court oversight."  

[...]

But security experts fear that measures such as RIPA could lead to a 
dangerous reliance on the gathering of electronic intelligence. "I 
wonder how far additional bits of technology are going to help--there 
has been too much reliance on people having magic boxes, and sitting 
back in London or wherever, being able to voice their predictions of 
what might happen. Many old-fashioned intelligence agencies such as 
M16 are going to complain about resource cuts, and claim that they 
now need more people on the streets," said Peter Sommer, encryption 
expert based at the London School of Economics.  

[...]

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