Former FBI chief renews calls for crypto backdoor laws

[michael (ukcrypto list)]

   CNET - News.com 

   Former FBI chief takes on encryption
   By Declan McCullagh 
   Staff Writer, CNET News.com
   October 14, 2002, 12:39 PM PT

   http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961969.html

   When  Louis  Freeh  ran  the FBI, he loved nothing more than launching
   into a heartfelt rant against the dangers of encryption technology.

   In dozens of hearings and public speeches, the FBI director would urge
   Congress to limit encryption products, such as Web browsers and e-mail
   scrambling  utilities,  that  did not include backdoors for government
   surveillance.

   Freeh  didn't  succeed.  In fact, the Clinton administration veered in
   the   opposite   direction   and   eventually   permitted,   with  few
   restrictions, the overseas shipments of data-scrambling products.

   But  Freeh,  who left the FBI in June 2001, hasn't given up. During an
   appearance  before  the  Senate  Intelligence  committee last week, he
   warned that the political reality after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
   means that it's time to reconsider what to do with encryption.

   "Robust   and   commercially   available   encryption   products   are
   proliferating, and no legal means has been provided to law enforcement
   to  deal  with this problem, as was recently done by Parliament in the
   United  Kingdom,"  Freeh  said  in his [1]testimony. "Terrorists, drug
   traffickers  and  criminals  have  been  able  to  exploit  this  huge
   vulnerability in our public safety matrix."

   According  to a law called the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act,
   U.K.  government  agencies  can  demand  encryption  keys  relating to
   intercepted   data  communications  that  are  scrambled.  Anyone  not
   complying with the request faces a prison sentence of up to two years.

   Freeh  acknowledged last week that he has been campaigning "about this
   problem for many years" and said that the International Association of
   Chiefs  of  Police,  the  50 state attorneys general, and the National
   Association of District Attorneys have pointed to the proliferation of
   encryption   as   the   most  critical  technology  issue  facing  law
   enforcement.  Encrypted  computer  files  found in Manila belonging to
   Ramzi  Yousef,  the  mastermind  behind  the  1993  World Trade Center
   bombing, proved that terrorists are using this technology, Freeh said.

   In  September  1997,  the  FBI persuaded one committee in the House of
   Representatives   to   work   toward   making   a   federal  crime  of
   manufacturing,  selling  or  importing  unapproved encryption devices,
   including  hardware  and  software  such  as Web browsers, Pretty Good
   Privacy  (PGP),  and  the  SSH utility. That bill never made it to the
   House floor.

   Freeh's  evident  passion  about  what  was  an obscure debate to most
   politicians  prompted  Sen.  Judd  Gregg,  R-N.H., to ask him in 1999:
   "Have you given up on encryption?"

   Replied  Freeh:  "I have not given up on encryption." In his statement
   at  the  time,  he  said  that  "law  enforcement remains in unanimous
   agreement  that  the  continued widespread availability and increasing
   use  of  strong, non-recoverable encryption products will soon nullify
   our effective use of court-authorized electronic surveillance."

   In  May  2002,  according to a  [2]report by the Canadian Broadcasting
   Corp.,  Freeh  said  that  companies such as Microsoft must be legally
   obligated to hand over the keys needed to decipher encrypted messages.
   Freeh, according to the CBC, said that doing so could prevent al-Qaida
   terrorists from talking via the Internet.

   Soon  after  the  Sept.  11  attacks,  Gregg  said  he would introduce
   legislation  to limit the availability of encryption without backdoors
   for   government  spying.  After  encountering  widespread  criticism,
   however, Gregg chose not to introduce the proposal.

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References
   1. http://intelligence.senate.gov/0210hrg/021008/freeh.pdf
   2. http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/04/30/elcock_terror020430