White House crypto briefings: Clipper, FIPS, escrow agents, export

[Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org>]

Briefings on Federal Encryption Policy/Telecommunications Security

Today (Feb 4), the Administration will hold 2 briefings about cryptography
and the Clipper chip.  The briefings will "report on a review of federal
policies and procedures for encryption and telecommunications
security-related products and technologies."

The first briefing, at 11am EST (i.e., in less that half an hour of this
posting), will update Congressional committee staff, and the second will
address concerns of industry reps, public interest groups, privacy
advocates and other non-government parties.  EFF will attend this second
meeting, at 1pm EST.

EFF will share what it learns about the results of either briefing
as soon as possible.  

An early "heads up" from the the Administration indicates that the main
subjects for the briefings will be:

        Administration will announce Clipper/Skipjack Federal Information
          Processing Standard (FIPS)
        Justice Dept. key escrow procedures to be announced
        Announcement of Treasury and NIST as Escrow Agents
        Decisions on encrytion products that fit under current export
          standards announced.

Other topics also likely to be addressed (unconfirmed):

        State Dept. will, surprisingly, streamline procedures for 
          export of Clipper
        Administration not going forward with DSS licensing agreement
          with PKP/RSADSI.

-- 
Stanton McCandlish * mech@eff.org * Electronic Frontier Found. OnlineActivist
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