Government Policy makes Internet breakins easier

Meanwhile, most computer systems have simple password systems that
can't protect against wiretappers. It's especially a problem on
international long-distance circuits, where the connections are more
exposed, because export rules say your business can't ship it the
package you use on your US computers to your foreign branches.
The Clinton Administration has announced that they're going to relax
the export rules a bit, if you use their new Escrow Encryption Chip
(which has built-in wiretapping capabilities) or simple encryption
systems with short, easy-to-guess keys.  The paperwork will be simpler,
and you won't need an arms dealer license to carry your cellular phone
or laptop computer on a business trip, but the NSA still retains
control over what technology you can use. Proposed legislation in
Congress would transfer control of crypto exports to the Commerce
Department, which handles most other export licensing.
Without the Communist Party to kick around, U.S. Administration press
releases bring up spectres of drug dealers, terrorists, and pornographers,
but some of the major applications for the wiretapping capabilities of
the new Escrow Chip appear to be financial transactions and tax evasion,
since banks will need to replace their current encryption systems with
something newer, as faster generations of computer technology will
make the present systems insecure over the next 5-10 years.
Because the Escrow Chip is a hardware-only approach,
it's adequate for automatic teller machines, but you'd need to buy a
government encryption module if you want to do your banking over the
Information Superhighway - more secure encryption can be done cheaply,
in software, but the NSA's 55 mph speed limit won't let you - for now.
On the other hand, the Cold War's over and you can get good encryption software
from Finland, Moscow, Bulgaria, Switzerland, or Australia, often free,
and it's becoming widely used by political activists in post-Communist
countries.
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The preceding has been the personal opinion of Bill Stewart,
and does not necessarily represent the views of the EFF, CPSR,
Cypherpunks, or my employer, but I'll be happy to have my rhetoric stolen :-)
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Bill Stewart billstewart@attmail.com