--- begin forwarded text Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 07 Sep 1995 07:15:48 From: James Rapp <infocker@megaweb.com> To: www-buyinfo@allegra.att.com, rpournel@hr.house.gov Subject: Industry Slams Gov's Encryption Export Plan I was at the 9/6 NIST session and this account is reasonably accurate. Even though a seemingly high percentage of attendees indicated displeasure with current Administration key escrow proposals, they seem hell bent on this path. Further, the sense was that industry representatives were basically invited as a simple window dressing maneuver. The engaging Whitfield Diffie of Sun Microsystems did an outstanding job of raising questions about the Administration's proposal. Today's session--"Desirable Characteristics for Key Escrow Agents." Jim Rapp, "give me more info" CyberStrategies Alexandria, Virginia Via Newsbytes, Kennedy Maize 9/6/95 12:00 a.m. WASHINGTON, D.C., -- The Clinton administration's new proposal on export controls onencryption in software got a tongue lashing from the software industry today. The administration's announcement of a so-called liberalization "suggests that the government is pursuing a 'son of Clipper' strategy that could lead to the mandatory use of government designed key escrow encryption," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance. Speaking at a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Holleyman said the administration plan to allow export only if the encryption scheme involves key escrow reveals "a misunderstanding of the marketplace and unless significantly changed, will prevent key escrow encryption from ever being commercially adopted." The White House initiative, Holleyman said, "failed to provide immediate relief to software companies because it did nothing to liberalize export controls on generally available software employing non-key escrow encryption. "Each delay by the administration in permitting the export of software with strong encryption capabilities results in lost sales for American companies," said Holleyman. "Ironically, foreign software competitors, unconstrained by export controls, continue to fill this void, with more than 200 foreign encryption programs available from 21 countries." Under the new administration proposal, software companies that employ non-key escrow encryption would continue to be limited to a 40-bit key. Holleyman called for the administration to immediately permit 56-bit encryption without key escrow, which he said is the current world standard. Last year, the administration was pushing a hardware-software approach to encryption, called the Clipper chip, which would have employed government-designated escrow agents to hold keys. Law enforcement agencies would have been able to get access to the keys from the escrow agents. Of the administration proposal to loosen controls on key escrow encryption, Holleyman said that "the administration's inability to shake off the Clipper mind-set is effectively precluding the adoption of realistic criteria for commercial key recovery systems." Holleyman suggested that a workable system must include strong encryption where users -- in the US and elsewhere -- are able to specify the key holder. Current administration policy, Holleyman said, is jeopardizing the "future of the global information infrastructure and electronic commerce. Instead of paving the roads, the administration has left in place roadblocks on the information highway." --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 323-7923 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell
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