Today's Economist editorial

[Ian Brown]

is brilliant. A few choice quotes:

"Confidence in encryption is essential for both Internet commerce and
the protection of individual privacy. If businesses believe that
confidential documents sent over the Internet can be hacked into, they
won=92t send them. If credit-card transactions can be easily intercepted,=

goods will not be purchased. If e-mails that individuals wish to keep
private can be electronically steamed open, they will stay unwritten."

"Powerful encryption is, in fact, an essential protection for the
law-abiding. Who would be confident that keys would not get into the
wrong hands, that trusted third parties could be trusted or that
law-enforcement agencies would not abuse their new powers as they have
done old ones, such as phone-tapping?"

"Plans to control encryption software are futile and misguided"

The only thing they could have added was the damage being done to
critical information infrastructures by the suppression of exactly the
software that would help protect them.

Buy it!

Ian :D