FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

Justice Department criticizes online anonymity

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 13:36:10 -0500 To: cryptography@c2.net From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: Justice Department criticizes online anonymity Copies to: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net

Of more relevance to this list, perhaps, is yesterday's testimony of the FBI's Michael Vatis with the bureau's usual crypto-complaints:

http://www.house.gov/judiciary/3.htm convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing, stored detailed plans to destroy United States airliners on encrypted files on his laptop computer.

-Declan

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34659,00.html

U.S. Wants Less Web Anonymity by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

3:00 a.m. 1.Mar.2000 PST WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government may need sweeping new powers to investigate and prosecute future denial-of-service attacks, top law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Anonymous remailers and free trial accounts allow hackers and online pornographers to cloak their identity, deputy attorney general Eric Holder told a joint congressional panel.

"A criminal using tools and other information easily available over the Internet can operate in almost perfect anonymity," Holder told the panel.

Holder said the Clinton administration is reviewing "whether we have adequate legal tools to locate, identify, and prosecute cyber criminals," but stopped short of endorsing a specific proposal.

Currently no laws require U.S. Internet users to reveal their identity before signing up for an account, and both fee-based and free services offer anonymous mail, Web browsing, and dialup connections.

[...]

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