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IP: more re Encryption Technology Limits Eased
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 11:47:12 -0400
From: "Dave Wilson" <dave () wilson net> To: <farber () cis upenn edu> I don't want to brag, but it was *first* reported by the San Jose Mercury News. Go to http://www.mercurynews.com for a complete report by Jonathan Rabinovitz.
As I said , the devil is in the details. I just got off the phone with "a well placed person" who said point two , which could translate as key escrow, is not intended by the Administration to call for mandatory escrow. It is intended to get at places which maintain key escrow facilities like corporations etc. I pointed out that in the course of debate in the Congress, someone will surely try for mandatory and he said "lets see what happens" I agree lets watch and be ready to stop it. I got a strong impression that the credit for this one goes to the VP Gore for leading the parts of the Government down a path they did not want to go. If so , well done!! Wonder what the FBI will do with $80 m. Subcontract with NSA? Dave According to the official, the policy comprises three pillars: * The administration will give $500 million to the Defense Department over the next several years to beef up its information security and to become a model for other government agencies and the private sector. * Exporters of the strongest encryption products, which generally have keys of 128 bits or more, will no longer need to license each shipment. Instead, they will in most instances only need to have a one-time technical review of the product. However, the new policy will maintain the current ban on sending such products to states considered ``terrorist nations'' and will require a case-by-case review of sales of high-power custom encryption to foreign governments. * Legislation will be proposed to Congress that will set up a system for law enforcement officials to go to court to get from third parties the keys that would open encrypted messages. Along with this proposal, the administration plans to set aside $80 million over the next four years to help the FBI improve its ability to crack codes.
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- IP: more re Encryption Technology Limits Eased David Farber (Sep 16)