MIT forum on Clipper.

["Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>]

Anonymous User says:
> Hopefully, this will better moderated than the last clipper event at MIT,
> where a single disruptive audience member wouldn't keep his !@#$ mouth
> shut, and augered an NSA technical presentation into a forum for him to
> preach his political gospel.

Steve Kent, the listed moderator, is a powerful personality. I doubt
he's going to allow anyone to bully their way into the discussion.

Perry



> 
>                         COMMUNICATIONS FORUM
> 
> GOVERNMENT WIRETAPPING, ENCRYPTION AND THE CLIPPER CHIP DEBATE
> 
> Thursday, September 29, 1994 4PM
> MIT MEDIA LAB
> Bartos Theatre, E15-070, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
> 
> Dorothy Denning, Dept. of Computer Science, Georgetown University
> Robert Holleyman, Business Software Alliance
> James Kallstrom, Special Operations Division, FBI
> Ronald Rivest, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
> Moderator: Stephen Kent, Chief Scientist for Security Technology, BBN
> 
> The federal government says it is necessary to update America's wiretapping
> capabilities to keep up with technological advances -- and that not doing
> so could mean losing the battle against organized crime and terrorism.
> Last year the Clinton Administration proposed the "Clipper Chip," a data
> encryption plan which would put the "keys" for decoding phone, fax and
> computer communications in the hands of the government.  The
> much-publicized plan has met with strong opposition from privacy groups,
> business executives and computer professionals, and has also been
> challenged on technical grounds.  At the center of the debate is the
> question of how to balance national and personal security concerns, on the
> one hand, with the right to privacy and the need to maintain the
> international competitiveness of businesses that use encoded
> communications, on the other.  Recently, government officials have
> expressed a willingness to compromise on some features of the Clipper Chip,
> but the debate continues over what kind of encryption system should be
> implemented and what role industry should play in the development and use
> of a new system.  This forum brings together representatives of the FBI,
> the computer software industry, and academic computer scientists who will
> share their views and concerns about the Clipper Chip and alternative
> systems of data encryption.