Steven Levy on Louis Freeh's position

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Note: Levy is doing a book on the cypherpunks.




--Mike




Topic 577 [eff]:  Dispatches from the CyberFront
#822 of 825: Steven Levy (steven)      Fri Oct 21 '94 (13:36)    58 lines


Further clarification of Director Freeh's comments at the Global
Cryptography conference Sept 23:


I got a call from a Public Affairs official of the FBI who told me that in
the circumstances I specified-- Digital Telephony passed, criminals not using
Clipper, FBI finding encrypted conversations when it wiretapped -- Freeh
was not necessarily saying that he would  seek legislative means of
regulation.


I had assumed this was so because the context of his remarks were of Digital
Telephony, where a legislative remedy to law enforcement's problem was
sought.


In any case, the transcript of the original remark (supplied to me by the
FBI) had this.  I asked the question whether the Administration policy of not
regulating domestic cryptography would change if in the future FBI wiretaps
yielded only encrypted converations.  Director Freeh wasn't sure of the
question, but when I clarified it he asked, "the terms of encryption being
a voluntary standard"?  which seemed to indicate he got my drift, asking
whether that voluntary nature would change if the FBI couldn't get clear
conversations.


I said, "Yes," acknowledging that that is what I meant.  He then said,
"Oh yeah, definitely.  If five years from now we solve the access problem, but
what we're hearing is all encrypted, I'll probably, if I'm still here, be
talking about that in a very different way: the objective is the same.
The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an
alligator clip or ones and zeros.  Whoever they are, whatever they are, I need
them."


The FBI Public Affairs Office also provided me some points that it wanted
to emphasize (here I paraphrase a bit)


        (1) The Director will continue to advocate public safethy through
lawful electronic surveillance while also "insuring the needs of industry
and the privacy of our citizens"


        (2) While the Director supports Clipper, he encourages the developement
of alternative key escrow schemes that would also meet the needs of law
enforcement


        (3) The Director encourages what he sees as the current process of
government and industry working together to find a balance that would let
business flourish, allow citizens to communicate securely, and insure public
safety.  "He is confident that solutions can be reached that will satisfy
these requirements."




Hope this all makes sense.