--- begin forwarded text Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 18:24:41 -0500 From: David Kaufman <davidk@air.com> Reply-To: davidk@air.com Organization: Allied International Resources MIME-Version: 1.0 To: rah@shipwright.com Subject: Bob - FYI -- not sure if this was already posted ? 12:51 PM ET 10/28/97 FBI chief calls for computer crime crackdown ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - FBI director Louis Freeh said Tuesday that criminals were moving increasingly into cyberspace and without new laws ``drug dealers, arms dealers, terrorists and spies will have immunity like no other''. Freeh told the International Association of Chiefs of Police that software manufacturers should be required by law to include a feature that allows police to descramble encrypted communications. ``It could take a $30 million supercomputer a year to figure out the simplest encrypted message without this feature,'' Freeh said. ``And that message might be 'we have the victim and will kill him in an hour'.'' ``We're not opposed to encrypting. Encrypting is very important when transacting business but encrypting makes it very hard to enforce court orders for surveillance.'' Freeh said he supported a cyber surveillance law with these features which passed out of the House Intelligence Committee. That bill has the support of the FBI, Justice Department, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies but does not have White House backing. ``Our own administration has not gotten behind this initiative. There are some very powerful industry forces opposing this,'' Freeh said. The ability of criminals to communicate with one another with computers is changing the face of law enforcement, Freeh said. ``All the boxes of evidence we used to bring back have been replaced by hard drives and discs. When we graduate our agents we give them in addition to a gun and a badge a laptop computer.'' ^REUTERS@ --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 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' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>