============================================================================= ____ _ _ _ / ___|_ __ _ _ _ __ | |_ ___ | \ | | _____ _____ | | | '__| | | | '_ \| __/ _ \ _____| \| |/ _ \ \ /\ / / __| | |___| | | |_| | |_) | || (_) |_____| |\ | __/\ V V /\__ \ \____|_| \__, | .__/ \__\___/ |_| \_|\___| \_/\_/ |___/ |___/|_| SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE SET TO VOTE ON MANDATORY KEY ESCROW LEGISLATION AS EARLY AS THURSDAY JUNE 19TH! CALL NOW! Date: June 17, 1997 Expires July 1, 1997 URL:http://www.crypto.com/ crypto-news@panix.com Redistribution of crypto-news is allowed in its entirety. _____________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents ALERT - Senate Committee Set to Vote on Key Escrow What YOU CAN DO NOW! Background On The Encryption Issue How to start or stop receiving crypto-news About This Alert _____________________________________________________________________________ ALERT - SENATE COMMITTEE SET TO VOTE ON BILL TO GUARANTEE GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO YOUR PRIVATE ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS On Tuesday June 17, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Bob Kerrey (D-NE) introduced legislation which would all but mandate that Americans provide guaranteed government access to their private online communications and stored files. The bill, known as "The Secure Public Networks Act of 1997" (S.909) represents a full scale assault on your right to protect the privacy and confidentiality of your online communications. Please take a moment to read the instructions below and, if your Senator is a member of the Commerce Committee, please take a moment to call your Senator TODAY! Though offered on Capitol Hill as a compromise, the McCain-Kerrey bill is virtually identical to draft legislation proposed earlier this year by the Clinton Administration while doing nothing to protect the privacy and security of Internet users. The bill closely mirrors draft legislation proposed by the Clinton Administration earlier this Spring. Specifically, the bill would: * Compel Americans to Use Government-Approved Key Recovery Systems * Make Key Recovery a Condition Of Participation in E-Commerce * Allow Government Carte Blanche Access to Sensitive Encryption Keys Without a Court Order * Create New Opportunities for Cybercrimes * Codify a low 56-bit Key Length Limit on Encryption Exports * Create Broad New Criminal Penalties for the Use of Encryption The full text of the bill, along with a detailed analysis, is available online at http://www.cdt.org/crypto/ ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW On Thursday June 19, the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to hold a vote on S. 377, the Promotion of Commerce Online in the Digital Era (Pro-CODE) Act - an Internet-friendly encryption reform bill sponsored by Senators Burns (R-MT) and Leahy (D-VT). Senator McCain, the Commerce Committee Chairman, is expected to try and substitute his proposal for Pro-CODE - gutting the proposal and inserting provisions which would all but mandate guaranteed government access to your private communications. Please take a few moments to help protect your privacy and security in the Information Age by following the simple instructions below. ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW ** THE COMMITTEE IS EXPECTED TO VOTE AT 9:30 AM Eastern JUNE 19 ** ** IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU CALL YOUR SENATOR TODAY ** A list of Senate Commerce Committee members is printed below. If your Senator is on the list, please call TODAY. NOTE - If your Senator is not on the list, please visit http://www.crypto.com/adopt and ADOPT YOUR LEGISLATOR. You will receive targeted alerts next time your Representatives or Senators are poised to vote on this and other critical Internet Related issues. 1. If your Senator's name is on the list below, pick up the phone and call them at 202-224-3121. Ask for your Senator's office. Order: Frist, Abraham, Snowe, Stevens, Browe, Bryan. * = has publicly stated opposition to the McCain-Kerrey bill. + = has publicly stated support to the McCain-Kerrey bill. William Harrison Bill Frist, R-TN Spencer Abraham, R-MI ALL THESE SENATORS ARE Olympia Snowe, R-ME TELEPHONABLE AT 202-224-3121 Ted Stevens, R-AK John B. Breaux, D-LA Richard H. Bryan, D-NV +John McCain, R-AZ, Chairman *Conrad R. Burns, R-MT Slade Gorton, R-WA *Trent Lott, R-MS Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX *John Ashcroft, R-MO *Sam Brownback, R-KS +Ernest F. Hollings, D-SC, Ranking minority member Daniel K. Inouye, D-HI Wendell H. Ford, D-KY +John D. Rockefeller, IV, D-WV +John F. Kerry, D-MA *Byron L. Dorgan, D-ND *Ron Wyden, D-OR 2. Ask for the staffer that handles the encryption issue 3. Urge your Senator to OPPOSE THE McCAIN-KERREY BILL (S. 909) at the Commerce Committee Markup on June 19: SAY THIS -> I am a constituent calling to urge the Senator to oppose the McCain-Kerrey "Secure Public Networks Act" at the Committee markup on June 19. The bill all but mandates key-recovery encryption and represents a grave threat to privacy and electronic commerce on the Internet. We need a solution to this issue that protects privacy and security on the Internet, and the solution being offered by Senators McCain and Kerrey isn't it. I hope you will take a strong stand on this important issue. 4. IMPORTANT! -- PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW IT WENT! Go to the feedback page for your member of Congress at http://www.crypto.com/feedback/ and let us know how it went. This will help us coordinate our strategy on the ground in DC. 5. Please forward this alert to your friends and colleagues who live in your congressional district (do not forward after June 25) 6. Finally, relax! You have done more to help fight for privacy and security on the Internet in 5 minutes than most people do in a year! We appreciate your support! ________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND ON THE ENCRYPTION POLICY ISSUE Complete background information, including: * A down-to-earth explanation of why this debate is important to Internet users * Analysis and background on the issue * An analysis of the Risks of Key-Recovery by leading cryptographers * Text of the Administration draft legislation * Text of Congressional proposals to reform US encryption policy * Audio transcripts and written testimony from recent Congressional Hearings on encryption policy reform * And more! Are all available at http://www.crypto.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S AT STAKE Encryption technologies are the locks and keys of the Information age, enabling individuals and businesses to protect sensitive information as it is transmitted over the Internet. As more and more individuals and businesses come online, the need for strong, reliable, easy-to-use encryption technologies has become a critical issue to the health and viability of the Net. Current US encryption policy, which limits the strength of encryption products US companies can sell abroad, also limits the availability of strong, easy-to-use encryption technologies in the United States. US hardware and software manufacturers who wish to sell their products on the global market must either conform to US encryption export limits or produce two separate versions of the same product, a costly and complicated alternative. The export controls, which the NSA and FBI argue help to keep strong encryption out of the hands of foreign adversaries, are having the opposite effect. Strong encryption is available abroad, but because of the export limits and the confusion created by nearly four years of debate over US encryption policy, strong, easy-to-use privacy and security technologies are not widely available off the shelf or "on the net" here in the US. A recently discovered flaw in the security of the new digital telephone network exposed the worst aspects of the Administration's encryption policy. Because the designers needed to be able to export their products, the system's security was "dumbed down". Researchers subsequently discovered that it is quite easy to break the security of the system and intrude on what should be private conversations. This incident underscores the larger policy problem: US companies are at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace when competing against companies that do not have such hindrances. And now, for the first time in history, the Clinton Administration and members of the US Senate have proposed DOMESTIC RESTRICTIONS on the ability of Americans to protect their privacy and security online. All of us care about our national security, and no one wants to make it any easier for criminals and terrorists to commit criminal acts. But we must also recognize encryption technologies can aid law enforcement and protect national security by limiting the threat of industrial espionage and foreign spying, promote electronic commerce and protecting privacy. What's at stake in this debate is nothing less than the future of privacy and the fate of the Internet as a secure and trusted medium for commerce, education, and political discourse. ________________________________________________________________________ HOW TO START OR STOP RECEIVING CRYPTO-NEWS To subscribe to crypto-news, sign up from our WWW page (http://www.crypto.com) or send mail to majordomo@panix.com with "subscribe crypto-news" in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send a letter to majordomo@panix.com with "unsubscribe crypto-news" in the body. Requests to unsubscribe that are sent to shabbir@vtw.org will be ignored. ________________________________________________________________________ ABOUT THIS ALERT This message was brought to you by the Center for Democracy and Technology (http://www.cdt.org) and the Voters Telecommunications Watch (http://www.vtw.org/), who have joined together to create the Adopt Your Legislator Campaign - a unique and effective way of creating dialogue between members of Congress and their Constituents on critical Internet-related issues. For more information on the Adopt Your Legislator Campaign, please visit http://www.crypto.com/adopt/ ______________________________________________________________________________ end alert 06.17.97 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------