[4262] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Encryption key would lock up criminals
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Wed Mar 3 13:24:12 1999
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 11:37:45 -0500
To: cryptography@c2.net, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 16:09:34 +0000
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Subject: Encryption key would lock up criminals
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The following provided by Yaman Akdeniz:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_289000/289139.stm
Tuesday, March 2, 1999 Published at 17:18 GMT
Sci/Tech
Encryption key would lock up criminals
Dr Ross Anderson: "Big business can look after itself."
By Internet Correspondent Chris Nuttall
Cyber-criminals would be caught if the government introduced a system where
the keys to coded e-mail were voluntarily lodged with licensed authorities,
according to the UK National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS).
NCIS was one of the groups appearing before the House of Commons on Tuesday.
"Criminals are lazy, greedy and they make mistakes," John Abbott, NCIS
Director General told the Trade and Industry Select Committee, which is
hearing witnesses on electronic commerce issues.
"We are able to capitalise on this and we anticipate that a licensing scheme
would allow us to have some successes," said Mr Abbott.
Civil liberties campaign
Civil liberties groups are campaigning against "key escrow" - the term used
for lodging codes with a third party. They do not want it included in a
forthcoming Electronic Commerce Bill.
A long-awaited consultation paper on the bill from the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) is expected in the next few days.
Opponents argue the proposed voluntary licensing system where Trusted Third
Parties (TTPs) would hold the keys to encrypted data being sent over the
Internet would never be used by criminals.
But an NCIS spokesman, who declined to be identified, told the hearing that
just as criminals used telephones at every level for their activities, so some
would use the TTPs.
"We would prefer to have a mandatory licensing system because that would be
more inclusive," said Mr Abbott.
"I do recognise that we are moving into new territory, and this would not be a
complete answer, and if all that is on offer is a voluntary scheme then that
is better than no scheme at all."
Real time access
The Chief Investigations Officer of HM Customs & Excise, Richard Kellaway,
told the hearing that real-time access was needed to encrypted data. Mr Abbott
added that it was no use knowing three days afterwards where a consignment of
drugs had been exchanged.
He admitted that key escrow would not solve the problem of crimes being
committed on an international scale over the Internet.
"But I would urge the government to lead. Law enforcement agencies throughout
the world are extremely concerned with developments. We anticipate the problem
will grow over time and certainly the G8 law enforcement forum are constantly
discussing this and looking for ways forward."
Business concerns
Businesses, as well as civil liberties campaigners, have voiced concern at the
possible proposals on key escrow, and the Post Office stated its opposition at
the hearing.
Jerry Cope, its managing director for strategy, said there were two areas of
concern: "If people feel this system makes them less secure then they will not
want to use it. We need to instil confidence.
"Then there is the additional cost of regulation and if it is greater than in
France or Ireland then business will go elsewhere. It is as easy to send e-
mail from London to Manchester via Paris as it is direct from London to
Manchester."
Mr Cope said there had been a lack of dialogue between business and law
enforcement agencies and he suggested a possible compromise. Agencies would
bear the additional costs of being able to extract information from TTPs and
would only exercise their powers when there was a threat to national security.
The Post Office will announce later this month that it is launching a Trusted
Third Party service called ViaCode.
Red flag
The final witness of the day, a leading encryption expert, Dr Ross Anderson of
Cambridge University, compared key escrow to the red flag that had to be waved
in front of the first motor cars to warn people of danger.
A week after the requirement was removed, there was the first road traffic
fatality. But no-one would suggest we go back to the red flag today and the
assumption is made by the police that 99% of those on the road are good guys,
he said.
He added that the police had a long way to go with computers to match their
current knowledge of the motor car. They had often had to call in outsiders
such as himself to help with encryption cases.
"There are many, many ways of attacking computer systems and inevitably TTPs
are going to be compromised," he said. "The role of government should be
protecting the consumer - big business can look after itself."
He said the best way forward in terms of legislation was the Australian
approach that simply recognised that electronic signatures had the same force
as manuscript signatures.
"Key escrow would have to be global to achieve its stated purpose, and there
is now no prospect of this," he said in an additional written submission to
the committee.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_288000/288863.stm
Tuesday, March 2, 1999 Published at 14:17 GMT
UK Politics
Internet 'will boost crime'
Drug smuggling may be harder to combat in the future
The Internet may boost the ability of criminals to organise and commit crimes
in secrecy, MPs have been warned.
Mark Castell looks at how law enforcement can deal with new technologyAn
official of the National Criminal Intelligence Service told MPs that in the
future encryption technologies may enable criminals - such as terrorists, drug
smugglers, money launderers and paedophile rings - to communicate with each
other with little chance of detection.
Presenting evidence to the Commons Trade Committee, Mark Castell said: "How
encryption is implemented in the market place is the critical issue, so far as
law enforcement is concerned."
Concerns over law enforcement and public safety must be taken into account
before encryption technology "imbeds itself in society", he said.
Encryption technology spreading
The issue of encrypting messages on the Internet is becoming increasingly
pressing, the committee heard.
The development of e-commerce means encryption techniques are becoming widely
available as secure means of conducting transactions over the Web.
Even relatively simple codes can take computer experts up to half-a-day to
break and as they become more widespread enormous pressure could be placed on
law enforcement resources.
NCIS Director General John Abbott told MPs he was in favour of setting up a
statuary framework to enable his organisation to deal with encrypted messages.
The interception of information was an essential part of crime detection, he
said.
NCIS believes it essential to have the law updated in order to enable it to
access encrypted e-mails, albeit under tightly regulated circumstances.
Although Mr Castell admitted that the present generation of criminals were not
computer wizards, he predicted that the next generation would be sophisticated
users of information technology.
A customs official explains the threat posed by encryptionThe Chief
Investigations Officer for HM Customs and Excise, Richard Kellaway, stressed
how important being able to intercept messages between criminals was to their
efforts to combat drug smuggling.
An official from his department added: "One cannot emphasise how important it
is to law enforcement to have a proper interception facility.
"We estimate that 60% of our drug seizures are related to the interceptions of
communications."
"If we are not able to intercept communications clearly and in a timely
fashion then that is the risk that's posed to the nation."
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
