Encryption Rules Coming

Financial Times, December 21, 1995, p. 4.


   Encryption rules to be prepared

   By Andrew Jack in Paris

   Representatives of international business and government
   yesterday agreed to draw up guidelines on encryption, a
   system which allows computer users to transmit information
   electronically with little risk that it can be intercepted
   and understood by unauthorised "hackers".

   The meeting, which was held at the International Chamber of
   Commerce in Paris, could lead to formal propositions
   prepared jointly by business and government organisations
   that could be ready by as soon as next summer.

   Yesterday's meeting did not have any formal legal
   authority, but was highly significant as the first forum
   where so many representatives of governments businesses and
   computer experts met to discuss developments in encryption.

   Highly sophisticated encryption technology already exists
   in a number of countries including the US and Sweden. In
   the US, companies already have access to these programs. A
   growing number of businesses -- led by the banking sector
   -- are demanding access to these programs.

   However, many governments, including that of the US, have
   resisted permitting the technology to be exported because
   they fear it will fall into the hands of organised crime
   and terrorist organisations.

   They have demanded that they should be able to "hack" into
   computer transmissions for counter-intelligence and
   criminal investigation work, in the same way that they can
   conduct telephone-tapping exercises.

   An important conclusion of yesterday's Paris meeting was
   that business agreed in principle to allow such hacking to
   take place as long as sufficient safeguards were in place
   and "electronic search warrants" had been issued with
   proper judicial approval.

   A number of governments appear willing to permit relaxation
   of export controls on sophisticated encryption devices as
   long as these safeguards are in place.

   Among the issues that experts on both sides need to resolve
   are the ways in which "keys" allowing computer
   transmissions to be decoded would be handled.

   A number of business organisations have discussed the use
   of third-party organisations, which would be independent of
   government, would have the keys and would hand them over to
   government investigators when demands were justified.

   However, the organisations still have to resolve a number
   of issues, including how these custodians could be made
   legally liable for any unauthorised access to this
   information and for the costs of its misuse.

   [End]

----------

   Does anyone have press reports or more information on this 
   meeting? Any connection to the recently signed Transatlantic
   Agenda?

>    Financial Times, December 21, 1995, p. 4.
 > 
 >    However, many governments, including that of the US, have
 >    resisted permitting the technology to be exported because
 >    they fear it will fall into the hands of organised crime
 >    and terrorist organisations.

I am forced to wonder whether the people who type in stories like this
are conscious while they do so.  Replace "the technology" with
"pistols" in the above paragraph; it doesn't make any sense unless you
assume there are no organized crime or terrorist organizations in the
US, or that such organizations can only acquire things that pass
through national borders.  Are news editors so technophobic that they
assume there must be something they just "don't get"?


On a vaguely related note, I saw a quick preview for an episode of
"The Client".  The episode was supposed to be about Internet child
molesters (who I suppose are the ones that know the secret
"meta-alt-ctrl" sequence that causes the innocent victims on the other
end of the wire to be abused via modem).  Anybody see it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX    |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>    Financial Times, December 21, 1995, p. 4.
> 
>    Encryption rules to be prepared
> 
>    By Andrew Jack in Paris
> 
>    Representatives of international business and government
>    yesterday agreed to draw up guidelines on encryption, 
[...]
>    The meeting, which was held at the International Chamber of
>    Commerce in Paris, could lead to formal propositions
>    prepared jointly by business and government organisations
>    that could be ready by as soon as next summer.
[...]
>    However, many governments
[...]
>    have demanded that they should be able to "hack" into
>    computer transmissions for counter-intelligence and
>    criminal investigation work, in the same way that they can
>    conduct telephone-tapping exercises.
> 
>    An important conclusion of yesterday's Paris meeting was
>    that business agreed in principle to allow such hacking to
>    take place as long as sufficient safeguards were in place
>    and "electronic search warrants" had been issued with
>    proper judicial approval.
[...]

The Int'l. Chamber of Commerce turns out to have Web pages. Their latest
press release on the web came out last week, describing the upcoming
conference: <a href="http://spider.usa1.com/~ibnet/iccpr883.html">Business
and governments seek agreed policy on encryption of electronic messages</a>

A few excerpts:

"OECD governments are participating in the two day conference, together with 
representatives of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Business 
and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), and information 
technology associations covering Europe, Canada, Japan, and the United States."

"An ICC expert, Stefan Bernhard, said: `Just as government agencies are 
obliged to seek court warrants before making physical searches within a 
company, or in the home of a private person, the same restrictions should 
apply on the information superhighway.'"

"For further information contact Lionel Walsh at the ICC communications 
division (33 1) 49 53 28 23. Email - ICCOM@ibnet.com"

-Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>