NYT on Crypto Bills

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   The New York Times, March 4, 1996, p. D4. 
 
 
   Compromise Bills Due on Data Encryption 
 
      Industry Opponents and Civil Libertarians Are Lukewarm, 
      at Best 
 
   By John Markoff 
 
 
   Legislation will be introduced in the House and the Senate 
   tomorrow in an effort to break the deadlock between the 
   computer industry and the Clinton Administration over the 
   control and export of software and hardware used to 
   scramble electronic data. 
 
   So far, though, the proposed measures have received only 
   cautious endorsement from industry executives, while 
   civil-liberties and privacy groups say they are worried 
   that the bills would enable the Government to decode 
   scrambled transmissions. 
 
   Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and 
   Representative Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, plan 
   to introduce similar bills that affirm the right of 
   Americans to use any type of data-coding equipment without 
   restriction and prohibit the mandatory use of special keys 
   that would allow law-enforcement agencies to read scrambled 
   data. Their bills would also make it a crime to use 
   encryption technology in committing a crime and would 
   permit the export of data-coding software and hardware if 
   similar technology was available from a foreign supplier. 
 
   Data-coding, or encryption, technology is based on 
   mathematical formulas that rely on the immense computing 
   challenge inherent in factoring large numbers. Until 
   recently, such technology was largely used by military and 
   intelligence organizations and by some corporations like 
   banks. As electronic mail and commerce have become 
   increasingly accessible, however, the technology has become 
   more controversial. 
 
   In April 1993, the Clinton Administration proposed a 
   national data-encryption standard known as Clipper, based 
   on a system that would have made it possible for 
   law-enforcement agencies, if authorized by a court, to 
   decode private voice and data communications. 
 
   The Clipper initiative has been strongly opposed by 
   industry executives and privacy advocates. They argue that 
   reliable coding technology is essential for commerce and 
   privacy protection on the Internet. They also say that 
   strict export rules are increasingly hindering the ability 
   of United States corporations to compete with foreign 
   suppliers. 
 
   The proposed legislation would ease some current 
   restrictions on the exporting of data-coding systems, but 
   civil libertarians still see areas of concern. 
 
   "The bills relax export controls, which is clearly a step 
   in the right direction," conceded Marc Rotenberg, director 
   of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington 
   research and policy organization. But the negatives, he 
   said, were that the bills opened the door to Government 
   access to private transactions "and criminalize the use of 
   cryptography when it is used to perpetrate a crime." 
 
   Industry officials said they expected the legislation to 
   stir little enthusiasm from corporate users. "Corporate 
   America is absolutely unwilling to give a third party 
   control of their data," said Jim Bidzos, chief executive of 
   RSA Data Security, a maker of encryption software based in 
   Redwood City, Calif. 
 
   [End]