Re: Dorothy Denning

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

New York Newsday, Tuesday, March 1, 1994

Letter to the Editor

THESE YANKEE CLIPPERS ...

Dorothy E. Denning asserts that the federal government needs to force
telecommunications consumers to buy into a so-called "weak encryption"
scheme using the National Security Agency's "Clipper" computer chip
because the government needs to be able to decrypt communications
traffic that criminals might generate in the future ["The Clipper Chip
Will Block Crime," Viewpoints, Feb. 22].  Denning fails to offer any
evidence that any criminal or terrorist group has ever used encryption
in the past, and also fails to explain why they would be stupid enough
to use a compromisable encryption scheme in the future.

Denning glosses over past governmental abuses of intercept technology
with assurance that Clipper intercept procedures are resistant to abuse.
Denning fails to mention that federal documents confirm that government
intercept procedures involving Clipper technology offer users no more
protection from wrongful government surveillance than plain text.

Intercepted data protected by so-called "strong" encryption cannot be
told from data protected by weak encryption until somebody actually tries
to break the code --- which would make random checking of the data stream
necessary to expose users of strong encryption schemes.  But the 
government disclaims the use of codebreaking except under court order.

Universal adoption of Clipper technology is unlikely because now, just
months after the government unveiled Clipper, designers are offering,
through electronic bulletin boards and user groups, freeware [available
for free tryouts before buying] programs using strong encryption.  It is
only a matter of months before true "military-strength" encryption
software reaches the market --- making Clipper the Edsel of cryptography.

If the government forces Americans to use nothing but Clipper encryption,
we can kiss the First and Fourth Amendment rights good-bye.  Hold out for
military-strength encryption to keep your data safe!


Ludwig R. Vogel
Manhattan

Editor's note:  The writer is chair of the Libertarian Party of New York
State.  The views expressed are his own.

----
Keyboarding by Lois Roth

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