Financial Times, December 21, 1995, p. 4.
Encryption rules to be prepared
By Andrew Jack in Paris
Representatives of international business and government yesterday agreed to draw up guidelines on encryption, [...] The meeting, which was held at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, could lead to formal propositions prepared jointly by business and government organisations that could be ready by as soon as next summer. [...] However, many governments [...] have demanded that they should be able to "hack" into computer transmissions for counter-intelligence and criminal investigation work, in the same way that they can conduct telephone-tapping exercises.
An important conclusion of yesterday's Paris meeting was that business agreed in principle to allow such hacking to take place as long as sufficient safeguards were in place and "electronic search warrants" had been issued with proper judicial approval. [...]
The Int'l. Chamber of Commerce turns out to have Web pages. Their latest press release on the web came out last week, describing the upcoming conference: <a href="http://spider.usa1.com/~ibnet/iccpr883.html">Business and governments seek agreed policy on encryption of electronic messages</a> A few excerpts: "OECD governments are participating in the two day conference, together with representatives of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), and information technology associations covering Europe, Canada, Japan, and the United States." "An ICC expert, Stefan Bernhard, said: `Just as government agencies are obliged to seek court warrants before making physical searches within a company, or in the home of a private person, the same restrictions should apply on the information superhighway.'" "For further information contact Lionel Walsh at the ICC communications division (33 1) 49 53 28 23. Email - ICCOM@ibnet.com" -Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>