Interactive Week exclusive - White House to launch "Clipper III"

[rodger@interramp.com (Will Rodger)]

The White House is about to answer recent attempts to liberalize encryption
exports with a proposal of its own.

Documents obtained by Interactive Week show the Ciinton Administration has
been lobbying key Republican committee members to compromise on encryption
through a policy that looks very much like previous commerical key escrow
efforts.

This time, however, the administration has proposed a new, licensed network
of certification authorities and escrow agents to control access to strong
encryption abroad.

The newest proposal is contained in a 24-page White Paper, a draft of which
hit Capitol Hill earlier this week.

Much of the administration's "key management infrastructure" assumes a
similar network of certification authorities abroad. CAs would link public
keys to their owners, and could serve as escrow agents for users' private
keys, as well. The two would not have to be under the same roof, however.

An overarching "Policy Approving Authority" would supervise all subordinate
CAs and escrow agents.

Since US escrow of exported products pose well-known problems for privacy
and business concerns, the US is proposing foreign governments get into the
act as well. If other governments acted as escrow agents, the Clinton White
House argues, interlocking agreements among governments would protect all
their common security concerns while giving non-US citiczens access to US
encryption products.

The ultimate goal, the White House says, is to allow export of anything at
all, so long as keys are escrowed with an agent of its approval.

The White House is evidenty relying on OECD initiatives for much of this to
happen.


Specifically, the "Clipper III" paper says that:

                U.S. companies can export software programs that use keys
that are 64 bits
                of data long, if they agree to escrow keys that unlock the
encryption in the
                U.S. or with an appropriate agency abroad.

                 Manufacturers can export hardware that use 80-bit keys to
encrypt data, if
                keys are escrowed.

                 Large U.S. companies can escrow keys and not rely on third
parties.

Reaction is as before. Civil libertarians are already denouncing the White
Paper, while pro-escrow forces are praising it. Staffers to Commerce and
Judiciary committee call it the same old proposal, but with a large
bureaucracy behind it.

Quoted in the Interactive Week article: David Sobel of Electronic Privacy
Information Center, Dorothy Denning og Georgetown U. and  Stewart Baker,
former NSA counsel. Hill staffers also quoted on background.


The URL for the complete article is:
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/daily/960518y.html

Will Rodger
Washington Bureau Chief
Interactive Week