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U.S.: Senator calls for encryption crackdown

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

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=zdnnp1tp02

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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