Bill Punishes Crypto

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/108

By Kevin Poulsen
October 26, 2000 3:36 PM PT

WASHINGTON--Criminals who use encryption to conceal their wrongdoing
will get harsher sentences than those who stick to plaintext, under
computer crime legislation pending in the Senate that's attracted
opposition from at least one civil liberties group.

"The provision is objectionable because it stigmatizes the use of
encryption, suggesting that it is somehow worse to use this method to
conceal a crime than to use other methods," wrote the ACLU in a letter
sent to the Hill on Wednesday. "Such a policy reflects the now
discredited view that encryption is dangerous and must be contained."

The Internet Integrity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of
2000 is sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
and Charles Schumer (D-NY). It was injected into an unrelated bill
that creates a national medal of valor for public safety officers, in
the kind of last-minute shuffling typical of the final days of a
congressional session.

In addition to creating the new sentencing enhancement, the
legislation would empower federal agents to use wiretaps and bugs when
investigating computer crimes, allow for civil forfeiture of property
in computer crime cases, and add computer hacking to the list of
offenses for which juveniles could be tried federally.

The prospect of broadening wiretap powers is particularly frustrating
to privacy advocates who were eyeing a competing House measure that
would have actually tightened controls on electronic surveillance.
"The bill expands law enforcement wiretapping and necessarily will
increase the interception of innocent conversations," says ACLU
attorney Greg Nojeim. "It rejects the balanced approach of the House
judicatory committee."

The organization also opposes federalizing juvenile computer crime,
arguing that the states are better equipped to handle juvenile
justice. But a former federal prosecutor says that taking children to
federal court may be a necessary evil.

"Just try to get a local or state prosecutor to go and do a computer
crime case," says Matt Yarbrough, a veteran of several hacker cases.
"The prosecutors haven't been trained for it, and most of the police
officers like to do what they're comfortable with."

Moreover, says Yarbrough, now an attorney with Vinson & Elkins in
Dallas, computer crime cases inevitably cross state lines, making
federal court the proper place for handling them regardless of a
suspect's age. "I'm just not sure that they have the capacity or
capability to handle a juvenile computer crime case."

On the enhanced sentence for criminals who use encryption, the former
prosecutor sides with the ACLU. "Everyone should be encrypting," says
Yarbrough.

[Text of bill S.2448]
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:s.02448:


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