From extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Sun Jun 6 11:10:38 1993 Return-Path: Received: from usc.edu by chaph.usc.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1+ucs-3.0) id AA02770; Sun, 6 Jun 93 11:10:37 PDT Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: from wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu by usc.edu (4.1/SMI-3.0DEV3-USC+3.1) id AA08725; Sun, 6 Jun 93 11:10:33 PDT Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: by wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (5.65/4.0) id ; Sun, 6 Jun 93 14:06:31 -0400 Message-Id: <9306061806.AA01411@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu> To: ExI-Daily@gnu.ai.mit.edu Date: Sun, 6 Jun 93 14:06:12 -0400 X-Original-Message-Id: <9306061806.AA01404@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu> X-Original-To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu From: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Extropians Digest V93 #0303 X-Extropian-Date: Remailed on June 6, 373 P.N.O. [18:06:30 UTC] Reply-To: Extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Status: OR Extropians Digest Sun, 6 Jun 93 Volume 93 : Issue 0303 Today's Topics: Forward: Clipper stuff [1 msgs] META: sky falling [1 msgs] Administrivia: This is the digested version of the Extropian mailing list. Please remember that this list is private; messages must not be forwarded without their author's permission. To send mail to the list/digest, address your posts to: extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu To send add/drop requests for this digest, address your post to: exi-daily-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu To make a formal complaint or an administrative request, address your posts to: extropians-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu If your mail reader is operating correctly, replies to this message will be automatically addressed to the entire list [extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu] - please avoid long quotes! The Extropian mailing list is brought to you by the Extropy Institute, through hardware, generously provided, by the Free Software Foundation - neither is responsible for its content. Forward, Onward, Outward - Harry Shapiro (habs) List Administrator. Approximate Size: 50801 bytes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1993 10:28:58 -0700 From: D Anton Sherwood Subject: META: sky falling > Comment: Is it just me, or are the discussions in this group getting > too strident, too rancorous, too disputacious? People have strong > opinions, of course, but [bla bla] Is it just me, or does someone ask that every couple of months? *\\* Anton Ubi scriptum? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1993 13:13:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Harry Shapiro Subject: Forward: Clipper stuff The following text is presented for personal educational use only. It is not to be copied or otherwise used in a manner which violates rights of its copyright holders. This letter serves only as private communication to readers of the Extropian Mailing List. _________________________________________________________________ Here is more stuff on the clipper, some of it is old, but just became available. /hawk Copyright 1993 The Washington Post The Washington Post May 30, 1993, Sunday, Final Edition SECTION: FINANCIAL; PAGE H1 LENGTH: 2309 words HEADLINE: Chipping Away at Privacy?; Encryption Device Widens Debate Over Rights of U.S. to Eavesdrop SERIES: Occasional BYLINE: John Mintz, John Schwartz, Washington Post Staff Writers BODY: The two men were well-dressed, Bill Frezza recalls. They walked into his New Jersey office a few days after his company, Ericsson- G.E. Mobile Data Inc., announced the introduction of a portable device for sending and receiving electronic messages. The two asked knowledgeable questions about whether the product incorporated "encryption" technology, which scrambles signals to frustrate eavesdroppers. They wanted to buy some of the expensive, high-tech devices. With cash. "They were not tekkies," concluded Frezza, the firm's marketing chief. By the time they left (empty-handed, since there were no devices to sell yet), Frezza had decided they were drug dealers. The New Jersey incident illustrates why law enforcement and intelligence agencies are working so hard to keep a finger on new communications technologies emerging around the world. They fear these advances will give criminals and terrorists a new advantage -- by making it all but impossible for authorities to tap their telephone and computer lines. The problem, say the feds, is that the bad guys are always the first to get the hot new toys -- whether they are fast cigarette boats, automatic weapons or computerized gadgets that ensure privacy. So the authorities -- over sharp protests from civil libertarians -- are continually looking for ways to defeat encryption technologies and continue monitoring communications. This conflict, simmering for years, came to a boil on April 16, when the White House announced it was imposing a new scheme for encrypting voice and data communications. The system, which employs a scrambler device dubbed the " Clipper Chip, " leaves a deciphering "key" in the federal government's pocket. Whitfield Diffie, a pioneering cryptographer at Sun Microsystems Inc., compares Clipper to "the little keyhole in the back of the combination locks used on the lockers of schoolchildren. The children open the locks with the combinations, which is supposed to keep the other children out, but the teachers can always look in the lockers by using the key." The government will stock up on phones and computers equipped with Clipper, and many companies that do business with the government will need to buy the same gear. The administration also hopes Clipper will catch on across the business landscape. Meanwhile, federal officials have been drawing up legislation to require telecommunications companies to grant law enforcement special access to U.S. communications networks. "We feel we need these tools to do our job," said James K. Kallstrom, the FBI's chief of investigative technology. Kallstrom said if the FBI can't get industry to make the changes, disaster could occur. "I don't have a lot of dead bodies laying around here or dead children from an airplane explosion that we haven't been able to solve -- yet." For Jim Bidzos, president of a California-based encryption firm called RSA Data Security Inc., the controversy "comes down to one simple question: Do you have the right to keep a phone call or a computer transmission private? The government says no." David Sobel, an attorney with Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group for high-tech industries, said the fight over Clinton's Clipper chip is the opening shot in "the battle for the future direction of the nation's data highways." Spooking the 'New Agers' The Clinton White House's decision to cast its lot with the FBI and the super-secret National Security Agency (NSA) has its ironies. The young computer wizards who manage the information industry helped elect Clinton, and they share with him a dream of a 21st- century telecommunications revolution. But many of the industry's "new agers," as one White House official calls them, think Clinton is selling out to the spooks and spies. The FBI and NSA had won support in the Bush administration for Clipper, first proposed several years ago. Then within weeks of the Democrats' move into the White House, top law enforcement and national security officials won over the Clinton team. One White House official said they were "taken with the aura of making national security decisions inside the White House. ... You see the stakes differently." The FBI and state and local law enforcement officials told the incoming Clinton team that resolving this issue was one of their highest priorities, industry sources said. Mike Godwin, counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is mobilizing the communications industry against Clipper, said that "like all liberals, Clinton has an interest in being seen as a good law-and-order guy." Clinton's National Security Council is now conducting a closed-door review of these subjects -- which the industry criticizes for being secret, like the earlier deliberations on Clipper. This week, a key Commerce Department advisory committee will hold hearings on the subject, and on Friday corporate critics will converge on the White House. Old Ways, New Days To understand the FBI's and NSA's concern about the new information age, it helps to recall the state of communications a quarter-century ago. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was only one phone company, AT&T, and it worked closely with the NSA and law enforcement, industry experts said. Similarly, the computer business was dominated by International Business Machines Corp. AT&T and IBM were huge, discreet and overtly patriotic bureaucracies -- proud members of the military-industrial complex. When the administration of President Gerald Ford filed an antitrust suit against AT&T in the 1970s, the Defense Department opposed it on national security grounds, since the firm was seen as key to the nation's mastery of the global communications system. When the antitrust suit succeeded in 1984 and a federal judge dismantled AT&T, the NSA was scared, government officials said. Instead of the one mighty AT&T, there are now seven regional "Baby Bell" companies and hundreds of new telecommunications players in the U.S. market, some foreign-owned. The computer business also has been balkanized, with some firms run by youngish rebels of the post-Vietnam War generation who sneer at authority. (The founders of Apple Computer Inc., Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak, started in business selling "blue boxes" -- machines that help users scam the phone company -- to students at the University of California at Berkeley.) The FBI and NSA are uncomfortable speaking about the nation's vital communications secrets with some of these newcomers, government officials said. Adding to law enforcement worries is the technology itself: Where the system was once just copper wires on poles, now it's a dizzying tangle of satellites, microwave towers, fiber-optic cables and cable TV systems, all linked up and bouncing signals around in cyberspace. "They feel this onslaught, being drowned by this technology revolution that's overrunning their capabilities," one White House source said of the NSA and FBI. "They're feeling very threatened. ... They fear the horse is getting out of the barn." Dealing With Digits The government's response to the new world has been twofold: an attempt to make the nation's phone and communications networks more open to government taps, and a drive to limit the spread of data encryption. The biggest worry for law enforcement is the high-tech modernization of the nation's communications system, especially the "digitalization" of phone networks. This translates conversations and data into the "0"s and "1"s of computer talk. Anyone who has heard the squeal of a fax machine knows it doesn't sound like conversation. The FBI wants a guarantee that when a court approves a wiretap, it can gain access through special "ports" to conversations or data streams that can be retranslated from digital language. The FBI is "panicky," said one Baby Bell executive, over the increasing sophistication of the U.S. phone system. "They're sitting over there with their simple little pair of alligator clips" that once were used to tap phone lines. The FBI's Kallstrom offers an example of the limits imposed by changing technology: In the mid-1980s in New York City, because digital switches that control cellular phone networks were not designed with law enforcement in mind, investigators looking into drug dealers, mobsters, terrorists and all other miscreants had only five "ports," or entry points, from which to tap cellular phones. "For years, criminals had a free pass to engage in criminal activity there," he said. "It's a mini-version of what'll happen in the future." The FBI says it wants to maintain the status quo, meaning its ability to keep monitoring calls. "You want to maintain what?" said Nathan Myhrvold, a Microsoft Corp. vice president. "That's just such a crazy thing to say in the computer industry," where product cycles are measured in months. In March 1992, the FBI took the offensive in the battle to keep the taps open. That's when it surprised industry with a legislative proposal that would require telecommunications firms to guarantee law enforcement access to its new information networks. This "digital telephony" proposal was later withdrawn after a bitter outcry from communications and computer companies. The firms opposed, among other things, provisions that the Federal Communications Commission must draw up rules on this highly complex matter in secret and on a highly expedited schedule, and that the phone companies' customers finance the modifications through rate increases that could cost many billions of dollars. Federal officials have been drafting new legislation, sources said, but have been tight-lipped about its content. Encryption Anxieties On top of the surveillance problems posed by a digital network, law enforcement also is vexed by the rise of inexpensive encryption technologies, used in everything from personal computer messages to electronic commerce. Businesses that zip sensitive secrets across the globe need to guard against industrial espionage, and some encryption systems are virtually unbreakable -- not only by industrial pirates, but also by the NSA and FBI. The government hopes Clipper will replace chips providing unbreakable encryption for conversations. The NSA also is promoting a chip to encrypt data, called "Capstone." Both use a classified encryption algorithm, or formula, called "Skipjack." Using these technologies, government officials retain their own master keys, actually long strings of numbers, to decrypt messages. To assuage the fears of civil libertarians, the government will split each key in two -- like the two pieces of a treasure map torn down the middle -- and place the pieces with two government agencies. A police officer who gets a judge's approval for a wiretap must go to the two agencies to tap the line. Administration sources said if the current plan doesn't enable the NSA and FBI to keep on top of the technology, then Clinton is prepared to introduce legislation to require use of its encryption technology, which is crackable by the NSA, and to ban use of the uncrackable gear. "It's an option on the table," said a White House official. Stephen Bryen -- formerly a top trade security official in the Pentagon and now president of a small Silver Spring-based firm that develops encryption technology -- says that he realized recently that "I've got a competitor, and it's the U.S. government." He said it is almost unprecedented for government to compete directly with industry in this way. "It's hard to compete against taxpayer money," he said. "The playing field's not level." So far, Clipper's launch has been less than auspicious. A coalition of top computer and telecommunications firms and trade groups -- including IBM, Microsoft and about 25 others -- has sent letters to Clinton raising a list of 150 pointed questions about the decision. On Friday, an association of firms that make computers said that with Clipper, government officials may find it "difficult to resist" monitoring communications it shouldn't. It recommended the government slow deliberations on the question. Details about Clipper's technology are classified. Without knowing about it, Clipper's critics say they can't evaluate how secure it is -- the central issue for those wanting privacy. Dorothy Denning, a Georgetown University cryptograpy expert briefed on the chip by government officials, says Clipper strikes a balance between strong data security and restricted government access. "I was impressed," she said. In any case, many in industry say they doubt Clipper will gain favor in the market. Data security shoppers may avoid a product with a famous security hole installed by the government. Paul Jones, vice president for government marketing at a Virginia- based encryption firm called Guardata, said a security consultant for a big labor union recently told him, "Do you think I'm dumb enough to buy something endorsed by the NSA?" For the same reason, Clipper would be a hard sell overseas, where companies might fear U.S. intelligence agencies would spy on them. The federal government, said Bidzos of RSA Data Security, "is forcing a showdown we just can't win" overseas. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee, fears the government may eventually ban encryption. "In a digitally linked world, where encryption is the key to privacy," he said, "banning encryption may be like banning privacy." Frezza of Ericsson GE said despite his personal reluctance to sell high-tech gear to criminals, the government's effort to limit encryption is fruitless because encryption software is bought so easily. "The genie is already out of the bottle," he said. "We're all going to look back on this date in five years and laugh that anyone tried to control this technology." GRAPHIC: ILLUSTRATION, TWP TYPE: NATIONAL NEWS SUBJECT: PRIVACY; TELECOMMUNICATIONS; COMMUNICATION REGULATION AND LAW; WIRETAPPING; COMPUTER ASSISTED OPERATIONS; COMPUTER & ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY; NATIONAL SEECURITY; FBI; RSA DATA SECURITY INC.; SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC.; ERICSSON-G.E. MOBILE DATA INC. NAMED-PERSONS: WHITFIELD DIFFIE; EDWARD J. MARKEY; JAMES K. KALLSTROM CO: SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC; TS: SUNW (NASDAQ); IND: 071 COMPUTERS; Copyright 1993 The Chronicle Publishing Co. The San Francisco Chronicle MAY 28, 1993, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D1 LENGTH: 573 words HEADLINE: High-Tech Group Protests U.S. Proposal on Privacy BYLINE: Don Clark, Chronicle Staff Writer KEYWORD: CODES BODY: A group representing 25 top computer and business equipment makers yesterday raised the most potent protest yet to a Clinton administration plan to protect communications using a classified code scheme. A statement released by the Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association argues that the administration plan might allow the U.S. National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone and computer traffic without court order. Since customers abroad will shun products with weak privacy protection, the proposed data-security standard could cause U.S. companies to lose sales to foreign rivals, CBEMA argued in the 20- page statement. The group's questions and complaints were filed with a Commerce Department agency in advance of an advisory board meeting next week that will discuss the code scheme. Though several civil- liberties groups have made their opposition known, CBEMA is particularly influential because of its exclusive corporate membership. Members include IBM, American Telephone & Telegraph, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, 3M Co., Xerox and Sony Corp. AT&T's affiliation is unusual, observers said, since the giant company was among the first to announce that it will sell communications hardware using a government-proposed encryption chip known as Clipper. The administration plan, disclosed April 16, seeks to protect communications and computer networks from crooks, spies and computer hackers, while retaining the government's ability to tap phone calls. Clipper chips embedded in phones and other products would scramble communications traffic according to special mathematical formulae. For the first time, however, two unspecified agencies would keep copies of mathematical keys that could crack the code. FBI agents or the police, armed with a court order, could use the keys to unscramble the conversations. The mathematical formula will be kept classified. It was designed by the supersecret NSA, which monitors international communications, to specifications set by the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. Code experts complain that it is impossible to judge the security of the Clipper chip if the formula remains classified. A NIST spokeswoman reiterated yesterday that use of the product will be strictly voluntary, but civil-liberty groups fear that competing encryption schemes offering unbreakable codes may eventually be outlawed. ''If the system is voluntary, the only people who will use it will be those who don't intend to break any laws,'' said Daniel Weitzner, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public-policy group in Washington. CBEMA's position highlights one of the murkiest areas in the Clipper scheme -- export enforcement. The administration has indicated that products containing the chip may be exported on a case-by-case basis. Since U.S. search warrants aren't required abroad, the NSA might take the position it is entitled to Clipper encryption keys without a search warrant to monitor any conversation where one or more of the subjects is outside the United States. ''Such a state of affairs would be unacceptable to us or our customers,'' the CBEMA paper argues. If foreign customers aren't allowed to buy Clipper-based products, U.S. computer makers would be forced to sell weaker encryption products than their foreign rivals. SUBJECT: BUSINESS; SECRECY; SECURITY; TECHNOLOGY; PRIVACY; EQUIPMENT; COMMUNICATION; POLICY; PRE NAME: Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association; U.S. National Security Agency; Bil Copyright 1993 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. THE PHOENIX GAZETTE April 17, 1993 Saturday, Final SECTION: FRONT; Pg. A9 LENGTH: 122 words HEADLINE: SCRAMBLER ALLOWS FBI WIRETAPS BYLINE: From THE PHOENIX GAZETTE news services. DATELINE: WASHINGTON BODY: The White House is touting a new telephone scrambling device, more sophisticated than anything now on the market, which will provide state-of-the-art protection against eavesdropping. The " Clipper Chip" unveiled Friday, is being released by the government for private use. But unlike other encryptors, this one was built to enable wiretaps if necessary. The White House said the device developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology would provide new protection against eavesdropping on corporate secrets. But it also would provide for FBI access if criminal activity were suspected. AT&T, which makes security devices, said it would immediately start putting the new technology in its products. TYPE: News in Brief COLUMN: THE WORLD Copyright 1993 The Washington Post The Washington Post April 17, 1993, Saturday, Final Edition SECTION: A SECTION; PAGE A09 LENGTH: 1028 words HEADLINE: U.S. MOVES TO ENSURE ITS ABILITY TO EAVESDROP; WHITE HOUSE SELECTS DEVICE FOR SCRAMBLING TELEPHONE, FAX, COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS BYLINE: John Mintz BODY: The White House yesterday announced its new plan to prevent criminals, terrorists and industrial spies from decoding communications over telephones, fax machines and computers while ensuring the government's ability to eavesdrop. The plan features a $1,200 government-developed computer chip embedded in a scrambling device the size of a small notebook, which the government hopes will be adopted as the universal means of encryption. The Clinton administration said the technology will balance the interests of civil libertarians, corporations and individuals on the one hand against law enforcement and intelligence agencies on the other. The National Security Agency (NSA), the super-secret eavesdroppin and code-breaking agency, and some law enforcement groups have expressed concern about new encoding technologies they can't crack. Some proponents of privacy and experts in cryptography said the White House announcement is, in effect, and attempt to head off independent efforts t develop computerized encryption. A potential victim would be a California-based company called RSA Data Security Inc. that has developed a fast-selling cryptographic program that is unbreakable to the NSA and has become the favorite of users who seek absolute security. Cryptographic programs convert radable data into indecipherable garbage that must be decrypted to be usable again. The official White House announcement yesterday was the endorsement of something called the Clipper Chip, developed by NSA, as the government standard for encryption devices. Industry and U.S. officials said that mens the Clipper Chip also will become widely accepted in corporate America, because companies and individuals desiring to do business with federal agencies that encode their information would have to use the government's standard if they do govenment work. The success of the government's initiative is uncertain because it depends on the willingness of companies to accept a technology for their encryption that the government can crack. Yesterday AT&T announced it would use the new chip in all its secure non-government telephones. The NSA has licensed two California companies to manufacture and market the Clipper Chip, officials said. The price is expected to drop to about $25 each as more are manufactured, they said. Government officials hope that within a few years the Clipper Chip will replace the United States' current encryption standard, called the Digital Encryption Standard (DES). Developed about 20 years ago, it is widely considered to be breakable, and many people in industry have looked elsewhere to safeguard their data. More and more high-tech firms -- defense contractors and banks, especially those with business overseas -- are on guard against attempts by foreign competitors and intelligence agencies to gather their secrets using phone taps, interception of satellite transmissions and other means. So industry increasingly is demanding encryption in its communications networks. A leader in the field is RSA, whose handful of youngish specialists from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology give the NSA fits with their formulas using staggeringly complex mathemetical algorhythms. Approximately 1 million computers and software programs sold in this country employ RSA gear, said Jim Bidzos, the president of RSA. RSA has licensed use of its gear in the equipment of companies such as International Business Machines Corp., Lotus Development Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Novell Inc. and Motorola Inc. "This is the next phase in [NSA's] ongoing battle to get rid of RSA," said Bidzos. "The government is using its standards-making and purchasing power to fight us. ...I think it will fail... [because] pwople don't trust the government blindly." Raymond Kammer, acting director of the Commerce department's National Institute of Standards and Technology, said the Clipper Chip is 16 million times more difficult for an outsider to penetrate than the 20-year-old Digital Encryption Standard. Someone using a computer with a certain power could break a DES algorhythm in 200 years, but it would take abillion years to break the new one, he said. The Clipper Chip is "very strong, with excellent protection," while also being accessible to law-enforcement agencies that obtain proper court orders to intercept communications, Kammer said. "We believe it strikes an equitable balance," he added. Under the plan announced yesterday, each chip would have two unique "keys," numvers that woud be needed by police of FBI officials who get a court order allowing interception of communications. The Justice Department would apportion control over these keys to two government agencies. Police would then have to get permission from both key holders to be able to wiretap or read messages. Privacy advocates and computer industry officials yesterday expressed dismay that the administration formulated the new plan in secrecy, and, unlike the case with DES, will keep classified the formula used in creating it. "We're concerned that the government may have prejudged a solution with wide-ranging implication," said Ken Wasch, executive director of the Software Publishers Association, which represents personal computer firms. TYPE: NEWS NATL SUBJECT: NORTHERN VIRGINIA Copyright 1993 Warren Publishing, Inc. Communications Daily June 4, 1993, Friday SECTION: Vol. 13, No. 107; Pg. 5 LENGTH: 484 words HEADLINE: 'End of Story'; ACTING NIST DIR. OPPOSES MANDATORY CLIPPER CHIP BODY: Acting dir. of National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) said Wed. he wouldn't support law to make use of Clipper Chip mandatory if industry failed to endorse govt. proposal. Briefing reporters during break in 3-day meeting of NIST's Computer System Security & Privacy Advisory Board, Raymond Kammer said his personal view is that if private industry doesn't use controversial new encryption technology, that's "the end of the story." Kammer said he didn't think society would stand for having its right to privacy through use of private encryption taken away. He acknowledged that mandatory use is one option that Clinton Administration is considering, but said there's wide range of others, including lifting export controls on cryptographic system. Clipper Chip system is only "optional standard" for federal govt., he said, and requiring its use "doesn't strike me as a sensible way to go about it." However, he said he thought many in govt. would use it because it has many functions that customers concerned with privacy of discussions, such as procurement officials, will find attractive, and because Clipper Chip is less expensive than most commercially available encryption devices and is more powerful. Social Security Administration and IRS are expected to be 2 of largest federal users, Kammer said, and technology could be accepted by general public because it's easier to use than most encryption schemes. Several key issues remain to be resolved, including management of escrow key that would be kept by neutral 3rd parties and accessible by law enforcement, implications for telecommunications technology and privacy and developments in public cryptography and export controls, Kammer said. Those will be discussed with advisory group next week, he said. In public testimony at advisory group's meeting at NIST hq in Gaithersburg, Md., there was little support for Clipper Chip technology. Groups and companies ranging from Electronic Frontier Foundation, Digital Privacy Security Working Group (30 companies and associations in computer business), Citicorp, Motorola and others all attacked technology and process by which it was introduced. They said there was little industry involvement during development and too little time for comment after process was introduced in April. Computer Business Equipment Mfrs. Assn. (CBEMA) said: "The disturbing aspect of both the 'key escrow' and the FBI's digital communications access proposal are that the entire communications and computing structure of the United States should be constructed with government access built in." Working group submitted list of 114 questions about technology and its use. Virtually only defense came from law enforcement groups and from Dorothy Denning, head of Georgetown U.'s Computer Science Dept., who has been lonely voice in computer industry debates in support of Clipper Chip. Copyright 1993 CMP Publications, Inc. CommunicationsWeek May 31, 1993 SECTION: NETWORK MANGEMENT; Pg. 40 LENGTH: 560 words HEADLINE: AT&T Unwraps Security Products for Data & Voice BYLINE: SHARON FISHER BODY: DALLAS AT&T announced encryption devices for data networks and cellular phones at the ICA ComNet show here earlier this month. The AT&T Surity Data Network System, which is based on the federal government's Data Encryption Standard (DES), is comprised of a device, called a network encryption unit, and software, which runs on an Intel Corp. 80486-based PC, according to an AT&T spokesman. The hardware can be installed at each desktop or installed on a server and configured to secure about 15 workstations, the spokesman said. The device is network-independent and can secure a wide variety of LANs and wide area network systems, including those that support TCP/IP, Novell Inc.'s Internetwork Packet Exchange, Digital Equipment Corp.'s DECnet Phase IV and Banyan Systems Inc.'s Internet Protocol, AT&T said. The Surity system is available now; prices depend on configuration. A 15-node network configuration would cost between $18,000 and $20,000, the spokesman said. Export Restrictions The U.S. government restricts the export of DES systems to foreign companies, but the Surity devices should be exportable to foreign divisions of U.S. multinational companies, the spokesman said. AT&T also introduced the Surity Transportable Cellular Telephone 9300, which uses the AT&T Surity Telephone Device that was unveiled last month for desk phones. The cellular telephone uses the " Clipper" chip, the federal government's proposed chip standard for voice encryption (Communications Week, April 26). "Using Clipper for data encryption is a little beyond where we are now," the spokesman said. AT&T's secure cellular phone will be available next quarter for $1,695. AT&T can be reached at 800-548-4053. Government Computer News Copyright 1993 Information Access Company Cahners Publishing Associates LP 1993 May 10, 1993 SECTION: Vol. 12 ; No. 10 ; Pg. 72 LENGTH: 508 words HEADLINE: Who will hold the keys to fed digital encryption locks; House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance chairman Rep. Edward J. Markey promises encryption legislation BYLINE: Power, Kevin BODY: Government's use of Clipper Chip encoding raises questions about pr ivacy rights Congress wants to reinforce the digital encryption locks on computers. But it is unclear how far lawmakers will go in regulating cryptography applications. At a hearing last month of his House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) promised some legislative action to help government and industry reap the benefits of encryption technology yet protect data privacy. Markey said his bill is needed because of the administration's push for an expansive national data network. "Unless we pay attention to issues of privacy, security and electronic fraud, our hopes for a national network may be distorted by those who seek to imperil its users by facilitating invasions of people's privacy or acts of electronic wilding," Markey said. "We also can't allow the FBI or National Security Agency to go out on their own shopping spree. There has to be a balance, and we're going to be legislating in this arena." Markey pressed officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to discuss how they will persuade users to adopt the government's new encoding device, the Clipper Chip. The White House introduced the Clipper Chip last month as a new federal standard. It not only will be used to safeguard agencies' telephone and computer communications but also is available for private-sector use. The Clipper, which NIST officials say eventually will replace the Digital Encryption Standard (DES), is programmed with a classified 80-bit algorithmic modulus. NIST officials have touted the Clipper algorithm as being 16 million times stronger than DES. But law enforcement agencies will be allowed to decipher messages after obtaining a court order. The Justice Department will designate two agencies to control Clipper encryption keys. But Markey questioned whether users can trust the government not to peek at private information. "The Clipper Chip raises questions about the freedom to protect data and who gets access," Markey said. Raymond G. Kammer, NIST's acting director, said the Clipper does not grant law enforcement authorities any new electronic eavesdropping rights. The stronger algorithm and the Clipper key management system should make it easier for companies to protect data with encryption, he said. "I cannot state it more simply. No trap door exists," Kammer said. "We plan to ensure that release of the keys is limited to truly criminal situations. The test of legitimacy for intercepting messages would not be changed." Kammer, NIST's deputy director, also said he expects to participate in the White House cryptography policy review. President Clinton directed the National Security Council to oversee the project with input from agencies, industry and privacy groups. Markey said his committee will hold additional hearings before drafting any encryption legislation. GRAPHIC: ;Photograph SUBJECT: United States. Congress. House. Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Laws, regulations, etc. ; Data encryption, Laws, regulations, etc. COMPANY: SIC: 9121 LOAD-DATE-MDC: June 02, 1993 Government Computer News Copyright 1993 Information Access Company Cahners Publishing Associates LP 1993 April 26, 1993 SECTION: Vol. 12 ; No. 9 ; Pg. 3 LENGTH: 845 words HEADLINE: NIST says Clipper Chip will replace DES; National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government's new encryption standard, Digital Encryption Standard BYLINE: Power, Kevin BODY: The White House has unveiled a new computer encryption chip that will become the government standard for safeguarding telephone and computer communications. Almost simultaneously, President Clinton directed the National Security Council to spearhead a review to establish a federal policy on advanced cryptographic applications. The government's new encryption microcircuit, called the Clipper Chip, was developed jointly by engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency. NIST officials said the Clipper Chip is programmed with a classified 80-bit algorithmic modulus that is 16 million times more difficult to crack than the popular Digital Encryption Standard, which employs a 56-bit binary key. Currently, DES is the only government approved method of encrypting messages. DES, first issued in 1977, is modeled after IBM Corp.'s 128-bit key Lucifer system. Take the lead But NIST officials said the Clipper eventually will replace DES as a Federal Information Processing Standard. Although the chip will be used immediately in telephones, NIST officials said it also can be used to protect data transmitted via fax machines and computers. "DES has been in place for years and has been OK'd for another five years," said NIST spokesman Matt Heyman. "But we expect the Clipper will become the new stronger standard for agencies needing full encryption." The Clipper is not a mandatory security tool, but Justice Department officials said they will take the lead by installing thousands of the new encoding devices in their telephones. Justice officials also will designate two agencies to govern use of Clipper encryption keys. Each Clipper Chip will have a serial number, a unique chip key and a chip family key that authorized agencies must have to decipher encrypted messages. The keys will be deposited into key- escrow data banks and access will be limited to law enforcement officials who have obtained court orders to do electronic monitoring. Mykotronx Inc. of Torrance, Calif., has been granted a license to produce the chips and AT&T Co. officials have announced that they will incorporate the Clipper into their secure telephone products. But because law enforcement agencies can access the key-escrow accounts, the Clipper raises the stakes in the upcoming national policy review, some industry observers said. "We are concerned that the administration may have reached a conclusion on the encryption issue before its study is even under way," said Ken Wasch, executive director of the Software Publishers Association. "The government seems to have gotten out in front of itself a bit." FBI Director William Sessions, NSA officials and other law enforcement officials have lobbied hard against any civilian cryptographic applications that block their ability to monitor electronic communications. Yet many industry and privacy groups are worried that the new chip will compromise their ability to keep legitimate communications confidential. "A system based on classified, secret technology will not and should not gain the confidence of the American public," said Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The only way to avoid this mistake is to publish open standards and subject them to expert, independent scrutiny." As to the cryptography review, administration officials said the NSC will coordinate its study with other agencies and with industry. The National Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board, the federal group that advises the government on security issues, has been clamoring for such a review since last year. DSS dispute Although the recent administration requirement that agencies justify the viability of all such groups had halted the board's work temporarily, NIST officials said the 12-member panel expects to resume operations with its meeting in June. Meanwhile, NIST also appears closer to resolving a patent dispute that has held up approval of its Digital Signature Standard. NIST developed the DSS to so agencies could verify the sender and contents of electronically transmitted messages. A group known as Public Key Partners (PKP) of Sunnyvale, Calif., recently acquired the rights to a public-key patent developed by a German professor, Claus P. Schnorr. PKP already holds the rights to four public-key patents on behalf of Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both PKP and Schnorr have charged that NIST's proposed Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) infringes upon their patents. The government originally sponsored the DSA research, and agencies are exempt from any licensing fees. But PKP claims vendors that incorporate the standard into their products must pay royalties. Although legal issues still must be worked out, NIST officials said the dispute should be easier to resolve now that NIST need deal only with PKP. SUBJECT: United States. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Standards ; Data encryption, Standards ; Federal government, Safety and security measures COMPANY: SIC: 9651 LOAD-DATE-MDC: May 28, 1993 Copyright 1993 Cable News Network, Inc. All rights reserved CNN NEWS June 2, 1993 Transcript # 417 - 3 TYPE: Package SECTION: News; Domestic LENGTH: 442 words HEADLINE: Sensitive Information Could Be Regulated by Government GUESTS: CLINT BROOKS, National Security Agency;KATE MARTIN, American Civil Liberties Union;RAY KAMMER, Natl. Institute of Standards and Technology; BYLINE: GENE RANDALL KEYWORD: Espionage & Intelligence; Science & Technology HIGHLIGHT: A new plan that would give the government control over encryption information is being considered by the White House. Critics say the government would have too much power over sensitive personal information. BODY: BERNARD SHAW, Anchor: Cryptography is the science of turning voice and data transmissions into code, then unscrambling them. In these days of corporate espionage, it is becoming more and more common. Now the federal government is proposing an encryption standard that it would control - and that's making some people very nervous. CNN's Gene Randall reports. GENE RANDALL, Political Correspondent: A recent Robert Redford film called Sneaker was based on it - the encrypting or encoding of information. But such security is more and more a concern in the real world as well. And now the Clinton White House has joined the National Security Agency in claiming the situation may be getting out of hand. That there is a need for a universal encryption standard. Under the NSA plan, the government would hold the keys to decoding encrypted telephone conversations with a so-called clipper chip. The keys, combinations of numbers, called algorithms, would be held by two separate government agencies in escrow to be used for court- approved intercepts - for instance in criminal and national security investigations. CLINT BROOKS, National Security Agency: We're trying to provide excellent privacy and yet have a technique whereby people cannot take advantage of a system that provides privacy to do things that are detrimental to society overall. RANDALL: But there is opposition to all this - from corporations who see the government as a new competitor in the encryption business and from those who say it violates the constitution. A Wednesday hearing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology echoed some of the opposition. KATE MARTIN, American Civil Liberties Union: We are concerned that fundamentally what this proposal does is give the government much greater power to invade individual privacy than it has at the moment. RANDALL: In the meantime, AT&T has begun manufacturing telephone equipment with a clipper chip and it's predicted the new system could be in use by the fall, though a National Institute of Standards official agrees there are strong arguments on both sides of the privacy issue. RAY KAMMER, Natl. Institute of Standards and Technology: We've got to try and find some kind of a balance between society's desire to be protected from criminals and at the same time I want to preserve my privacy and I'm sure all U.S. citizens do as well. RANDALL: The government insists that compliance with the new encryption standard will be voluntary but there are industry fears that unless a company adopts what the NSA has approved, it could lose its government contracts and the export licenses it needs to ship its own encryption devices overseas. Gene Randall, CNN, Washington. The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, although the text has been checked against an audio track, in order to meet rigid distribution and transmission deadlines, it has not yet been proofread against videotape. Copyright 1993 National Public Radio NPR SHOW: MORNING EDITION April 20, 1993, Tuesday LENGTH: 946 words HEADLINE: New Chip Ensures Privacy - But Not From Uncle Sam BODY: BOB EDWARDS, Host: A new scrambling device that protects phone conversations from everyone but the government. [headlines] EDWARDS: Some new technology has been developed that's designed to protect the privacy of telephone communications from illegal eavesdropping, but the new system is the focus of controversy because the federal government has built in a way for law enforcement agencies to listen to private conversations. NPR's Dan Charles reports. DAN CHARLES, Reporter: You don't usually go to the White House to learn about computer technology, but last Friday, officials there unveiled a new silicon chip. The ' clipper chip, ' as it's called, is programmed to turn electronic transmissions like telephone conversations into gibberish that no one unauthorized listening in can understand. And it turns that gibberish back into normal speech or data at the other end. Whitfield Diffy [sp], a senior engineer at Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley, says this clipper chip is an example of the technology of secret codes, or cryptography. WHITFIELD DIFFY, Sun Microsystems: This is, in some sense, a relatively ordinary cryptographic chip of which there are lots. CHARLES: Banks, companies and government officials can use these chips to make sure no one eavesdrops on financial transfers or confidential discussions, and the government says this new chip will offer more powerful protection than anything people could buy up to now. But there's another reason why the government wants people to use the clipper chip, and it's why a lot of people are up in arms about it. Every one of these chips will have in its circuitry a unique key, a very long number, that only the government knows, and if an agency of the government like the FBI wants to listen in, that number will be like a master key that allows them to decode the conversation. Mr. DIFFY: The mechanism is very much like what the real estate agents do with houses, right. They take you to show you - show you a house, and they don't have a key to house in their pockets, but they get to the house and there's a lock box hanging on the front door, and they have a master key in their pockets, and they open the lock box and take out the key to the front door and open the front door and go in and show you the house. CHARLES: The special key that the government holds is like the key to the lock box. Even though someone using the clipper chip can choose their own key to keep other people from listening in, the chip is programmed to always keep that changing key inside the lock box where the government can get at it. The reason for that lock box is that the government occasionally likes to listen in to the phone calls of suspected criminals at home and hostile governments abroad. For the last two years, law enforcement officials have been worrying publicly that the Mafia or terrorists will start buying powerful scrambler phones to keep the FBI from understanding their conversations. The government doesn't want to ban this technology because increasingly, legitimate businesses depend on it. So the government developed its own version, the clipper chip. Raymond Camer [sp], Acting Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, says it's a good compromise. RAYMOND CAMER, Acting Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology: On the one hand, you've got a need for personal privacy, and I think most of us intuitively understand that and desire it, I know I do. And on the other hand, you've got the right of society to try and assure itself that it's safe from crime. CHARLES: But computer scientist Whitfield Diffy, who's one of the pioneers of modern cryptography, thinks the lock box is a terrible idea. He says that trying to deny even criminals the right to a private conversation is dangerous. It's something absolutely essential to the functioning of society. Mr. DIFFY: We are taking a long step towards saying no, you can never be sure that you're going to have a private conversation on the phone, and therefore, a real right of privacy only belongs to people rich enough to travel and meet face-to-face. CHARLES: Government officials say they have policies in place to prevent abuse. Law enforcement agencies will have to request the key for any lock box from two separate independent agencies, each of which will have only a piece of the key. This should also make it harder for anyone to steal the keys. Diffy says the clipper chip will encourage more government eavesdropping simply because it's there. Technology makes policy, he says. If the government invests hundreds of millions of dollars creating a computer chip designed for wire taps, it will try to take advantage of that investment whenever possible by carrying out more to them. The success of the government strategy will depend on people buying the chip. AT&T will soon be selling a small, flat box, half a foot long and about four inches wide, with the clipper chip at its heart. It costs just over a thousand dollars and plugs right into the cord that connects the telephone handset to the phone itself. People who have it can talk to each other in complete privacy unless the government want to listen in. This is Dan Charles in Washington. [music] [This transcript has not yet been proofread against audiotape and cannot, for that reason, be guaranteed as to accuracy of speakers and spelling.] THE PRECEDING TEXT HAS BEEN PROFESSIONALLY TRANSCRIBED. IT HAS NOT YET, HOWEVER, BEEN PROOFREAD AGAINST AUDIOTAPE AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. ------------------------------ End of Extropians Digest V93 Issue #0303 ****************************************