[Fwd: [FYI] Intelligence agencies and police want to get access to encrypted messages]

[Wouter Slegers]

On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 07:28:02AM +0100, Donald ramsbottom wrote:
> SNIP>
> >Intelligence agencies and police want to get access to encrypted 
> >messages  
[SNIP]
> I had heard about this but this is the first time in "print".  Well
> LEA's and Gov's are at least consistent in wanting access, if not the
> in the means.
Sigh. This story is getting worse with each time it is passed on.
The leaked internal draft of the TTP chamber referred to states that the
law enforcement agencies should have the same access to encryption
managed by TTPs as with any other provider of telecommunication
infrastructure. Under the new Dutch telecommunications law, any
provider of general telecommunication infrastructure (telephone
companies, ISP et al), when served with a wiretap order, must provide
the traffic of the specified customer as readable as possible. This
includes providing the encryption keys used for that traffic iff the
provider has access to them (or providing the plain text communication).
A TTP storing or providing keys directly used for encryption is no
different.
However this is _only_ relevant for TTPs that hold the keys needed to
decrypt your traffic. In most setups TTPs simply do not hold these keys
and can therefor not be forced to give them. And no, this does not mean
the TTPs are forced to implement key escrow if they didn't already
provide it.
So the Dutch government is not as nefarious as this article makes them
look :-)

> There were a number of links to some weighty PDF files in this, do you know
> if there are any translations knocking about or if BOF are going to produce
> any?
None that I know of (and no, I'm not particularly fond of translating
them by hand).

With kind regards,
Wouter Slegers