One of the parts that got added to the SAFE bill is this new Technology center. It is supposed to help the FBI when they run into encryption. We all know that's not going to work. Not very well anyway. Maybe if it's some bogus encryption like the SMIME that has a new crack program out for it, they'll get through it. But if it is real crypto then there's no way the Technology center is going to be cracking keys. What I think they'll do is work on virus software. They can write something which will hack the crypto on your PC and make it weak. If they want to wiretap some drug dealer, they get him to download one of their programs somehow. Maybe they've got a Java bug which lets them hack files when he goes to a certain web page. Or maybe they get him to download some free demo of a game or interaction service (hotchicks.com). Whatever, the program actually looks for PGP and other crypto software and hacks it. Now the FBI can read his stuff. This is probably even legal. If they could break into his house and stick a bug in his computer, why can't they do the same thing electronically. They might even want to set things up ahead of time so that crypto software gets hacked for everyone. They won't look, see, unless they get a judge to OK it. But they get some utility that everybody uses like realaudio or winzip, and they convince the author to put in their hack. Now everybody who uses this has their crypto broken. The FBI promises not to do any decryption without a warrant, so they haven't actually stolen anyone's privacy. Maybe they could even set it up so that it was only broken for the FBI, that anybody else wouldn't be able to read it. Do you think would try this? What would you do if you were an a**hole and ran the Technology center? "John ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com