Having sent faxes to all the targets on my media list, I'm looking for the following: 1> A Fax number for AT&T public relations so I can explain to them that they can count my business out if they don't wise up. 2> A Fax number for Intergraph Corp 3> Internet addresses for same. I sent the following text to several media contacts: April 18, 1993 Sir or Madam, I am sending this text to call your attention to what I and others believe to be a grievous attack on privacy for the private sector and the public at large. On April 16, 1993 the White House Office of the Press Secretary issued a statement regarding the administration's emerging policy on encryption hardware and technology. In short this policy is a ruse. With the increasing reliance on data links and E-Mail to communicate, cryptography has evolved to protect the otherwise vulnerable data traffic in this country. E-Mail and data transfers are not as secure from tampering and compromise as is the postal service. Messages sent through mail nets have no "envelopes" and are unprotected from the prying eyes of system administrators on any of the many nodes a message may pass through. Indeed those using electronic mediums for mail services are entitled to some reasonable assurance of privacy. As a result, cryptography and encryption have become fruitful industries in this country. The Clinton administration seems well on the way to destroying this industry and stomping on the rights of citizens to secure their communications from surveillance. The "Clipper Chip Proposal," which is becoming known in the academic community as the "Big Brother Proposal," bills itself as a solution to the conflict between law enforcement and "crypto industry." It is not. By enforcing the Clipper technology as a standard, the Clinton administration has taken the first step in regulating all encryption technology and selling short the American people. The Clipper technology, by the administration's own admission, is compromised from the beginning. Cipher keys for Clipper hardware are to be segmented and stored in depositories maintained by two agencies, (which remain yet unnamed) and released with "the proper authorization." No one educated in the nuances of encryption would take such a system seriously. Willingness to accept a system that comes already compromised is simply unimaginable, at least while other systems are still around. The administration insists that the algorithm for the Clipper technology is secret, and will not be released to the academic sector or the public at large. A vital part of the development process of any new algorithm is its' ability to withstand the scrutiny of the academic and private sectors. The current encryption standard (DES) is a prime example. The algorithm for DES was made available to the academic and private sectors at no loss of security to those using DES based systems. Indeed the weaknesses of DES were eventually revealed by the academic sector as a direct result of this scrutiny. Part of the mark of a well designed system is in the ability to remain secure despite disclosure of the algorithm. No entity can be expected to trust such a system without being able to review it for additional "backdoors" written into the system. I cannot fathom that the administration has not realized these points. They must know that such a system as the Clipper Chip is unmarketable and doomed to failure in its' current state. As long as other technology remains available, who would buy the Clipper Chip? And how does the introduction of the Clipper Chip aid law enforcement in protecting American citizens? Alone it does not. Any organization, criminal or otherwise, would be quite content to patronize other vendors not employing the Clipper Chip, many of which currently exist. I can only assume then that the administration's next step is to place heavy regulations on other hardware and software products not utilizing Clipper Chip technology, using the availability of Clipper systems to justify their move. The increasingly authoritarian methods the administration continues to adopt deserve careful scrutiny. The precedents established by this move, namely the regulation of the software industry, denial of reasonable freedom from government intrusion in personal affairs, and government created technology monopolies, are more than alarming, but dangerous. When confronted with the possibility of facing fines or criminal penalties for which computer program we use, the phrase I hear more and more often is, "I can't believe it's happening here." Most Concerned, [Signature] Shaen Logan Bernhardt I (uni@acs.bu.edu) Are my letters annyoing anyone yet? uni (Dark)