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NYT (our guy John) on PGP
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 13:15:49 -0500
- ---------------------------- The New York Times Tuesday, September 21, 1993 Business Day - ---------------------------- Federal Inquiry on Software Examines Privacy Programs By John Markoff SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20 - In a Government investigation with implications for free speech and privacy in the information age, a Federal grand jury in San Jose, Calif., has issued subpoenas to two software publishers selling versions of a program that protects the privacy of electronic mail and other computer data. The investigation appears to focus on whether the program has been illegally exported in violation of State Department regulations that control the sale of weapons and other technologies whose export the Government believes may compromise national security. The relevance of such regulations in the post-cold war era is the topic of growing debate in Washington, where communications and computer executives plan to testify before Congress on Wednesday. [Page C3.] The software program, known as Pretty Good Privacy, or P.G.P., was written several years ago by an independent programmer in response to Federal threats to crack down on the distribution of encryption software which is used to protect computer data by converting them into secret code. No one can read the encoded information without access to mathematical keys - one that is publicly known, a second known only to the recipient of the coded message. The program has since been freely distributed around the world, used on thousands of personal computers and work stations. Receiving the Federal subpoenas were Viacrypt, a Phoenix company that plans to sell a licensed version of P.G.P., and Austin Code Works of Austin, Tex., which is selling a version of P.G.P. for other software developers to incorporate their own programs. The grand jury subpoenas, which the companies received Sept. 9, ordered them to supply all correspondence and records related to the international distribution of P.G.P. and other information related to computer cryptography. A Customs Department official refused to comment on the case today. William P. Keane, the assistant United States attorney who signed the subpoenas, confirmed that there was a grand jury investigation, but said he could not comment. Both publishers said they had no plans to sell their products abroad. "I think they're more concerned with our intentions than what we've done," said Leonard Mikus, president of Viacrypt, which is a division of the software company Lemcom Systems Inc. of Phoenix. "They're on a fishing expedition, but this could become a landmark case that sets the limits that distinguish between electronic and conventional publishing." Battling the N.S.A. The investigation is the latest round in a growing battle in recent years between the National Security Agency and a variety of groups in this country, including high-technology companies, computer researchers and civil libertarians, over the role of coding software in protecting computer data. The N.S.A., whose role is to monitor electronic communications around the world, has consistently acted to block the adoption of new technologies that would make its mission more difficult. But the widespread availability of high-speed digital communication links and inexpensive personal computers may make it impossible to enforce technology restrictions in the future - as the widespread international dissemination of P.G.P. has already indicated. President Clinton alluded to the problems of controlling distribution of software technology in a speech last week promoting the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Nothing we do in this great capital can change the fact that factories or information can flash across the world, that people can move money around in the blink of an eye," the President said. "Nothing can change the fact that technology can be adopted, once created, by people all across the world and then rapidly adapted in new and different ways by people who have a little different take on the way that technology works." Question of Legality Government regulations, enforced by the State Department, make it illegal to export cryptographic software without a special munitions export license issued for weapons sales. Those restrictions have angered many computer industry executives who argue that encryption software is the crucial technology underlying a variety of information-age services, ranging from secure electronic mail to computerized payment of bills. Last year, a number of United States software companies, represented by the Software Publishers Association, a trade group, struck a deal with the N.S.A. permitting them to export software that contained coding functions. Those codes, however, are believed to be easily cracked by the N.S.A. The P.G.P. software under investigation is thought to defy most N.S.A. code-cracking efforts. The legitimacy of the export regulations is also disputed by legal scholars who argue that they restrict freedom of speech. "There is a First Amendment right to speak in a encrypted way," said Eben Moglen, a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University who is familiar with the case. "The right to speak P.G.P. is like the right to speak Navajo. The Government has no particular right to prevent you from speaking in a technical manner even if it is inconvenient for them to understand." Protection from Code-Breaking P.G.P. has been controversial since it was written by the programmer, Philip Zimmerman, because it uses a coding formula that many researchers believe powerful enough to protect information from even the National Security Agency's high-speed code-cracking computers. The formula was developed by three well known computer scientists: Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adelman. - --------------
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