For personal use only... Keyboarding by Lois Roth NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1994 Ideas & Trends Cyberspace Under Lock And Key By John Markoff SAN FRANCISCO In Silicon Valley some of the country's best computer hackers are talking about acts of civil disobedience in cyberspace. Their target is a plan by the Federal Government to discourage a proliferation of coding schemes that insure electronic conversations are private -- from everyone including the authorities. Under a plan being pushed by the Clinton Administration, the computer industry would be strongly encouraged to adopt a new data scrambling standard, embodied in a device called the Clipper Chip, that would allow law enforcement agencies, armed with court orders, to eavesdrop on electronic communications. Earlier this month, Vice President Al Gore said the proposed standard was an important law and order issue for the Administration. The danger, he warned, is that unchecked computer coding technology will make it possible for terrorists and criminals to have secret electronic conversations. The White House is also pressing for legislation that would require telephone networks, cable companies and wireless communications services to install systems that allow law enforcers to listen in. While the Clipper system is voluntary today, a coalition of Silicon Valley business executives and civil liberties advocates argues that there is no guarantee that it won't be made mandatory by a future Administration. In the meantime, it could become a de facto standard as companies that want to do Government business would have to install the chips in their products. Furthermore the Government could use existing export laws to require Clipper chips in any computers shipped to other countries. "They're asking us to ship millions of computers abroad with a chip stamped J. Edgar Hoover inside," said John Gage, director of the science office at Sun Microsystems Inc., a maker of computer work stations based in Mountain View, Calif. "We refuse to do it." A Silicon Valley group called Cypherpunks, which wants to make free and powerful cryptography available to the masses, has been discussing ways to trick officials into thinking the keys to the Clipper code have been stolen. Others are considering violating export restriction laws by sending thousands of copies of encoding software out of the country over the Internet. In fact, the ability to devise coding schemes -- unbreakable even by the most powerful supercomputers -- is so widespread that trying to impose a universal standard may be like trying to enforce Prohibition. Home- brew coding software can be easily exported by electronic rumrunners on computer disks or instantly sent over electronic networks to any city in the world. With Clipper, which was developed by the National Security Agency, communications are mathematically scrambled with an unbreakable code, but an extra set of two keys -- actually long numbers -- would permit authorized third parties to listen in, with the same restrictions that now apply to wiretapping. As a safeguard, both keys would be required to monitor conversations. But some opponents argue that the system could still be abused by Government officials or clever hackers who are able to steal the code. They also point out that despite claims that Clipper is necessary for national security, no other foreign Government or foreign company has indicated that it is willing to use a coding system that is breakable by the United States spying agencies. Even close allies like Canada and Britain have said they are not willing to adopt Clipper. Last week, Michael Nelson, an Administration official in charge of technology policy, broadcast an electronic mail message over the Internet to reassure computer users that the Government has no intention of enforcing mandatory encryption. But skeptics remain unpersuaded. "They are utterly transfixed with the horrible vision of the nuclear armed terrorist," said John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest computer group that is campaigning to stop the Clipper chip. "This is the last ditch effort of the old superpowers trying to establish imperial control over cyberspace." Across the Internet, activists are discussing civil disobedience strategies while mainstream groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility are organizing a lobbying attempt against Clipper. But some hackers aren't waiting for the government to back down. They're pressing ahead with their networks. A programmer named Philip Zimmerman has written free software called Pretty Good Privacy for protecting electronic mail messages. The program touched off a Justice Department investigation after it was sent overseas through international networks. Now Mr. Zimmerman is working on another free program that will allow personal computers, equipped with microphones, speakers and conventional high-speed modems, to act as secure telephones, allowing their users to have private conversations that can't be overheard. This promises to be about as popular with Clipper supporters as radar detectors are with the highway patrol. "They were angry about Pretty Good Privacy," said Mr. Zimmerman. "They're going to go ballistic over this." --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165