Markoff on Cypherpunks

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

For personal use only...

Keyboarding by Lois Roth

NEW YORK TIMES

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1994

Ideas & Trends

Cyberspace Under Lock And Key

By  John Markoff

SAN FRANCISCO

In Silicon Valley some of the country's best computer hackers are talking
about acts of civil disobedience in cyberspace.

Their target is a plan by the Federal Government to discourage a
proliferation of coding schemes that insure electronic conversations are
private -- from everyone including the authorities.  Under a plan being
pushed by the Clinton Administration, the computer industry would be
strongly encouraged to adopt a new data scrambling standard, embodied in
a device called the Clipper Chip, that would allow law enforcement
agencies, armed with court orders, to eavesdrop on electronic 
communications.

Earlier this month, Vice President Al Gore said the proposed standard was 
an important law and order issue for the Administration.  The danger, he
warned, is that unchecked computer coding technology will make it possible
for terrorists and criminals to have secret electronic conversations.

The White House is also pressing for legislation that would require
telephone networks, cable companies and wireless communications services
to install systems that allow law enforcers to listen in.

While the Clipper system is voluntary today, a coalition of Silicon Valley
business executives and civil liberties advocates argues that there is no
guarantee that it won't be made mandatory by a future Administration.
In the meantime, it could become a de facto standard as companies that
want to do Government business would have to install the chips in their
products.  Furthermore the Government could use existing export laws to
require Clipper chips in any computers shipped to other countries.

"They're asking us to ship millions of computers abroad with a chip 
stamped J. Edgar Hoover inside," said John Gage, director of the science 
office at Sun Microsystems Inc., a maker of computer work stations based 
in Mountain View, Calif.  "We refuse to do it."

A Silicon Valley group called Cypherpunks, which wants to make free and
powerful cryptography available to the masses, has been discussing ways to
trick officials into thinking the keys to the Clipper code have been
stolen.  Others are considering violating export restriction laws by
sending thousands of copies of encoding software out of the country over
the Internet.

In fact, the ability to devise coding schemes -- unbreakable even by the
most powerful supercomputers -- is so widespread that trying to impose
a universal standard may be like trying to enforce Prohibition.  Home-
brew coding software can be easily exported by electronic rumrunners on
computer disks or instantly sent over electronic networks to any city in
the world.

With Clipper, which was developed by the National Security Agency,
communications are mathematically scrambled with an unbreakable code, but
an extra set of two keys -- actually long numbers -- would permit
authorized third parties to listen in, with the same restrictions that
now apply to wiretapping.

As a safeguard, both keys would be required to monitor conversations.  But
some opponents argue that the system could still be abused by Government
officials or clever hackers who are able to steal the code.

They also point out that despite claims that Clipper is necessary for
national security, no other foreign Government or foreign company has
indicated that it is willing to use a coding system that is breakable
by the United States spying agencies.  Even close allies like Canada
and Britain have said they are not willing to adopt Clipper.

Last week, Michael Nelson, an Administration official in charge of
technology policy, broadcast an electronic mail message over the Internet
to reassure computer users that the Government has no intention of
enforcing mandatory encryption.  But skeptics remain unpersuaded.  "They
are utterly transfixed with the horrible vision of the nuclear armed
terrorist," said John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a public interest computer group that is campaigning to stop
the Clipper chip.  "This is the last ditch effort of the old superpowers
trying to establish imperial control over  cyberspace."

Across the Internet, activists are discussing civil disobedience
strategies while mainstream groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation
and the Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility are organizing a
lobbying attempt against Clipper.

But some hackers aren't waiting for the government to back down.  They're
pressing ahead with their networks.  A programmer named Philip Zimmerman
has written free software called Pretty Good Privacy for protecting
electronic mail messages.  The program touched off a Justice Department
investigation after it was sent overseas through international networks.

Now Mr. Zimmerman is working on another free program that will allow
personal computers, equipped with microphones, speakers and conventional
high-speed modems, to act as secure telephones, allowing their users to
have private conversations that can't be overheard.  This promises to be
about as popular with Clipper supporters as radar detectors are with the
highway patrol.

"They were angry about Pretty Good Privacy," said Mr. Zimmerman.  "They're
going to go ballistic over this."

--- WinQwk 2.0b#1165