[2430] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Janet Reno reports on crypto-negotiations with industry
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Declan McCullagh)
Tue Mar 31 15:58:09 1998
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 12:47:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
*****
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/afternoon/0,1012,1864,00.html
The Netly News / Afternoon Line
March 31, 1998
Gregg Shorthand
Not many bureaucrats are as lucky as Attorney General Janet Reno. When
she showed up at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this
morning, Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) offered to help her solve such
knotty problems as encryption, wiretapping, and the best way to fatten
the Justice Department's already immense budget. Asked Gregg: "Do you
need significantly more resources in this area?" FBI Director Louis
Freeh's reply was unsurprising. "We do need resources," he said, to
deal with mushrooming hacker threats. Gregg also asked how close the
Justice Department was to closing a deal with the computer industry --
presumably the Americans for Computer Privacy coalition -- on
compromise encryption legislation that some advocates fret will trade
away Americans' privacy. "People need to understand that if you don't
solve the encryption issue, the country's basically open to all sorts
of threats, terrorist threat and obviously drug dealers," Gregg warned
-- doubtless in reference to the cartels currently dealing crack over
at freebase.com. How were the talks progressing? "I think we have a
lot of work to do," Freeh replied. Reno said she's only "asking that
our authority be adopted to modern technology" by banning encryption
products without backdoors for government surveillance. Right -- the
same authority that says you have to make an extra set of keys to your
house in case the feds feel like dropping by unannounced. Reno has
asked Congress to delay voting on all crypto bills during the
negotiations, which she predicted will last two months. --By Declan
McCullagh/Washington
