The New York Times, October 4, 1996, p. A32. A Flawed Encryption Policy [Editorial] The new White House proposal to keep high-powered encryption software out of the hands of foreign terrorists and criminals is needlessly restrictive and probably unworkable. Though the new plan is better than previous Administration proposals, it risks doing more harm than good. The Administration is rightly worried that foreign terrorists or criminals will get hold of encryption software that will make it impossible for the Government to eavesdrop on their telephone and computer messages. The technology is legal in this country, but the Administration wants to keep the powerful new software out of foreign hands. However, the Administration downplays the fact that encryption is also a good way for honest citizens to prevent crime. At a time when banks and other private companies send vast amounts of confidential information over the electronic highway, it would seem sensible to make high-quality encryption widely available so that the private sector can protect itself from criminal or malicious eavesdropping. For that reason, the Government ought to promote wide-scale dissemination of encryption, both here and abroad. Trying to block dissemination is probably useless and almost certainly harmful to American exports. Powerful encryption systems made by foreign companies are already available in Europe and Asia, and American exporters will need to sell state-of-the-art software to keep competitive. The Clinton Administration previously proposed that the computer industry adopt a single type of encryption, known as key-escrow, which would scramble messages with mathematical passwords. Under the plan, private companies and individuals would turn over these passwords to the Government, which, with court authorization, could use them to unscramble the phone and computer traffic. The purpose of key-escrow, then, would be to preserve the Government's existing ability to tap phone calls. But that Clinton plan was firmly rejected by industry and privacy-rights advocates who feared that a government that held passwords would abuse First Amendment prohibitions against listening in on private communications. The latest White House plan addresses many of these concerns. It would impose restrictions only on the software that exporters sell abroad. Privacy advocates have less to fear from the latest plan because it would allow individuals to deposit their passwords with private organizations, rather than the Government. Yet the Administration has not explained why foreigners would buy American software that would allow the F.B.I. to eavesdrop when they could buy equally powerful software from non-American manufacturers that omits any such trap door. Critics assume that foreign governments -- few of which pay attention to American constitutional protections against invasion of privacy -- would demand access to passwords, making such software unattractive for anyone to use. There is room to improve the plan. A panel of the National Research Council recently concluded that there is no good reason to restrict exports of currently available encryption because foreigners already have access to equally powerful software. There is time to work out restrictions, in cooperation with the industry and privacy advocates, for the next generation of encryption software. In the meantime the Administration might push forward on the panel's other sensible recommendations -- such as developing better encryption expertise within the F.B.I. and helping the private sector develop the encryption software it needs to stop illegal eavesdropping. [End] The National Research Council report is available at: http://pwp.usa.pipeline.com/~jya/nrcindex.htm