FC: President Clinton is a back door man

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,33779,00.html

                       Clinton Favors Computer Snooping
                       by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                       6:00 p.m. 19.Jan.2000 PST
                       WASHINGTON -- Visions of stealthy black
                       helicopters landing on your lawn and
                       disgorging Nomex-clad troops to steal
                       your PGP keys aren't just for conspiracy
                       theorists.

                       The Clinton administration wants to be
                       able to send federal agents armed with
                       search warrants into homes to copy
                       encryption keys and implant secret back
                       doors onto computers.

                       "When criminals like drug dealers and
                       terrorists use encryption to conceal their
                       communications, law enforcement must
                       be able to respond in a manner that will
                       not thwart an investigation or tip off a
                       suspect," Attorney General Janet Reno
                       and Deputy Defense Secretary John
                       Hamre wrote in a seven-page letter to
                       Congress.

                       The idea first surfaced in mid-1999, when
                       the Justice Department proposed
                       legislation that allowed them to obtain
                       surreptitious warrants and "postpone"
                       notifying the person whose property they
                       entered for 30 days.

                       The Justice Department's thinking was
                       that if a suspect was using
                       data-scrambling encryption products, the
                       FBI's G-men might need to enter the
                       suspect's home and install software to
                       tap into and decipher scrambled
                       communications.

                       After vocal objections from civil liberties
                       groups, the administration backed away
                       from the controversial plan. The final
                       draft of the Cyberspace Electronic
                       Security Act (CESA) submitted to
                       Congress had removed the secret-search
                       portions.

                       But the White House now appears to
                       think it doesn't need new legislation to
                       enter a suspect's computer.

                       [...]



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