BBC Online - Security and law enforcement: the government view 20/2/98 11:45GMT

[Tom Thomson]

At 07:52 22/02/98 UT, Michael Bacon wrote:
>> Law enforcement agencies say the free use of encryption is a danger to
>> national security from a computer on the other side of the world, a 
>terrorist is at work.
>> He is not making bombs or planning revolution. He might be remotely
>> accessing the processing control systems of a cereal manufacturer to
change the
>> levels of iron and sicken and kill children innocently enjoying their
food. He might
>> attack air traffic control systems and cause the collision of two civilian
>> aircraft. He could be doing anything. And he is almost impossible to trace.
>
>In this, the government appears to be following the doctrine of 'information 
>warfare'.  Under most definitions this would appear to be Class II IW.  The 
>potential exists to execute a similar scenario and has already been 
>demonstrated by 'hackers' - albeit with a 'theft of service' motive.
>
>None-the-less, I cannot easily see how the proposals would prevent such a 
>scenario.
>
So far as can see, the proposals do precisely the opposite:  they increase
the chance for such activity.  The terrorist has to get into the cereal
manufacturer's system, into the air traffic control system, and to do so he
needs keys; escrow proposals just make one more place where those keys may
be obtained.


Tom Thomson			email: 	tomt@harlequin.co.uk
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