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Wired News : U.S. Endorses New Crypto Regs (fwd)

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David Vincenzetti

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Jul 18, 2000, 3:00:00 AM7/18/00

Strong crypto per tutti.
Se e' vero, c'e' da tirare un vero sospiro di sollievo!

--vince

-----Forwarded message from "R. A. Hettinga" <r...@shipwright.com>-----
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 14:53:07 -0400
To: Digital Bearer Settlement List <d...@philodox.com>, dc...@ai.mit.edu,
crypto...@c2.net
From: "R. A. Hettinga" <r...@shipwright.com>
Subject: Wired News : U.S. Endorses New Crypto Regs

--- begin forwarded text

Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 11:44:39 -0700 (PDT)
To: r...@shipwright.com (rah)
From: Somebody
Subject: Wired News : U.S. Endorses New Crypto Regs

<snippage...>
============================================================

From Wired News, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,37617,00.html

U.S. Endorses New Crypto Regs
by Nicholas Morehead

11:10 a.m. Jul. 17, 2000 PDT
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton Administration wants to relax encryption
export controls and harmonize privacy standards for electronic
communications.

In a speech at the National Press Club on Monday, White House Chief of
Staff John Podesta announced proposed legislation being sent to
Congress that would relax existing export controls on encryption
technology.

Under the new policy, American companies will be able to export any
encryption product to any end user within the 15 nations of the
European Union as well as Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Poland, Japan, and Switzerland.

In addition, American exporters would no longer have to wait for a
complete technical review or incur the 30-day delay which is the
standard under existing policy. Instead, American exporters would be
able to ship their products to these nations immediately after filing
a commodity classification request to the Department of Commerce.

Stressing the relationship between strong encryption technologies and
strong cyber-security, Podesta chided the Republican-controlled
Congress for failing to appropriate strong security measures through
legislation.

"Good security needs to be updated constantly -- and it costs money,"
Podesta said. "We've proposed $90 million to help detect computer
attacks, to conduct research on security technology, to hire and train
more security experts, and to create an internal expert review team
for non-defense agencies.

"Unfortunately, the Congress still refuses to appropriate one dime to
put these initiatives in place. It's time they picked up the pace and
provided the protections that are essential to America's cyber
security."

Podesta also announced Administration efforts to bring existing
privacy laws into the current technology age -- applying the same
legal standards to all electronic communications that are given to
telephone conversations. "It's time to adopt legislative principles
that map these important privacy principles onto the latest
technology," Podesta said.

"It's time to update and harmonize our existing laws to give all forms
of technology the same legislative protections as our telephone
conversations."

"Our aim should be to enhance law enforcement's ability to address
unlawful conduct, but also to enhance privacy and civil liberties on
the Internet," Podesta said.

Podesta illustrated his example with the current "tap and trace"
regulations that were written for the telephone era. The
Administration proposal, for example, would grant state or federal
courts the right to issue one order to trace a communication to its
source, regardless if it's been channeled through numerous telephone
or Internet providers. But the proposal also seeks greater judicial
oversight of trap and trace authorities.

"Federal law should make clear that such orders should only be issued
after a judicial officer has determined that the proper factual
showing has been made," Podesta said. "These are steps that will
protect our public safety while preserving our civil liberties."

The Administration proposal also seeks to amend existing wiretapping
statutes that are hardware-specific and written with "outmoded"
language and replace them with technology-neutral language. "In other
words, the legislation would apply equal standards to both hardware
and software surveillance," Podesta said.

The proposal also seeks to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act --
applying penalties to the computer crimes appropriate to the damage
they cause. Whereas small attacks causing under $5,000 worth of damage
should be treated as a misdemeanor, multiple small attacks would be
treated would be lumped together and treated accordingly.