cr> Canada's Leading Cryptographers Oppose Cryptography Legislation
T Bruce Tober
octobersdad at reporters.net
Sun, 26 Apr 1998 13:12:29 +0100
FYI
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ELECTRONIC FRONTIER CANADA (EFC) --- PRESS RELEASE
(For immediate release --- Monday, April 20, 1998)
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URL = http://www.efc.ca/pages/pr/efc-pr.20apr98.html
Canada's Leading Cryptographers Oppose Cryptography Legislation
OTTAWA -- Fourteen of Canada's leading cryptographers -- experts in the
coding and decoding of messages -- have signed letters opposing government
regulation of cryptography. The letters were delivered to the Task Force
on Electronic Commerce today at a roundtable meeting on cryptography
hosted by Industry Canada.
The letters were written in response to a February 1998 Industry Canada
report entitled "A Cryptography Policy Framework for Electronic Commerce",
which listed possible scenarios for government regulation of cryptographic
hardware and software. Dr. David Jones, president of Electronic Frontier
Canada, a non-profit civil liberties group, delivered the letters this
morning in Ottawa.
"Cryptography is essential for the transition to a wired society", said
Jones. "It is the key enabling technology that will allow Canadians to keep
our personal information and communications private without fear of
eavesdropping, as well as safeguard the security of our online transactions,
without fear of fraud. If the government places restrictions on the use of
cryptography, it would likely do more harm than good."
The Industry Canada report suggests that, in deference to law enforcement
and national security concerns, one policy option might be to ban
cryptographic products that do not allow the government to listen in.
But Canada's leading cryptographers claim such a ban would be infeasible.
Dr. Charles Rackoff, professor of computer science at the University of
Toronto and author of several fundamental papers on cryptography, stated
that prohibition of such products "would be unenforceable in practice, since
the basic mathematical methods are published and well known and can be
easily implemented in software by any bright high-school student."
Indeed, three of the signers, Dr. Scott Vanstone and Dr. Alfred J. Menezes
of the University of Waterloo, and Dr. Paul C. van Oorschot, have written
and published a book entitled Handbook of Applied Cryptography (CRC Press,
1997) that describes the mathematics of encryption in great detail.
Canada's cryptographers also expressed concern that export controls on
cryptographic products would adversely affect the fledgling Canadian
cryptography industry. Additional restriction would "severely handicap
Canadian products and technology as they compete in the global market for
information security products", said Dr. Menezes.
Dr. Jeffrey Shallit, Vice-President of Electronic Frontier Canada agreed:
"Cryptographic software and hardware has the potential to be a
billion-dollar industry. If Canada is to take part, it must ease its export
restrictions, not strengthen them."
Electronic Frontier Canada is a non-profit educational organization devoted
to ensuring the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms are preserved as new computing and communications technologies
emerge.
The list of signers of the the letters follows. AFFILIATIONS ARE FOR
IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY. Signers do not speak for the institutions that
employ them, and the opinions of the signers do not necessarily reflect
those of the employing institution.
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Scott Vanstone, PhD,
University of Waterloo (co-author, Handbook of Applied Cryptography,
CRC Press, 1997)
Charles Rackoff, PhD,
University of Toronto
Carlisle M. Adams, PhD,
Entrust Technologies
Sharon Boeyen,
Senior Consultant, Advanced Security Technology Group, Entrust
Technologies
Helmut Jurgensen, PhD,
University of Western Ontario
Alfred Menezes, PhD,
University of Waterloo (co-author, Handbook of Applied Cryptography,
CRC Press, 1997)
Robert J. Zuccherato, PhD,
Entrust Technologies
Paul C. van Oorschot, PhD,
(co-author, Handbook of Applied Cryptography, CRC Press, 1997)
Michael J. Wiener,
Senior Cryptologist, Entrust Technologies
Howard Heys, PhD,
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Hugh C. Williams, PhD,
University of Manitoba
Gordon Agnew, PhD,
University of Waterloo
Ian Goldberg,
Researcher, University of California, Berkeley, Internet Security,
Authentication, Applications, and Cryptography Research Group
Rob Lambert,
Certicom Corporation
-30-
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EFC Contact Information:
Electronic Frontier Canada
Dr. David Jones, djones@efc.ca
phone: (905) 525-9140 ext. 24689, fax: (905) 546-9995
Dr. Jeffrey Shallit, shallit@efc.ca
phone: (519) 888-4804, fax: (519) 885-1208
Dr. Richard Rosenberg, rosen@efc.ca
phone: (604) 822-4142, fax: (604) 822-5485
Electronic Frontier Canada's, online archives:
URL: http://www.efc.ca
EFC Fax: (519) 745-0941 (if busy, call (519) 743-8754)
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Related Documents:
EFC Golden Key Campaign -- http://www.efc.ca/pages/crypto/golden-key.html
This web page contains links to additional information related to
cryptography policy in Canada.
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EFC
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