Cryptography The Language Our Government Doesn't Want You to Learn EFF-Austin General Meeting Monday, October 16th, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. La Madelein Inn, 3418 North Lamar The rights of individuals to live freely in a democracy versus the powers society grants law enforcement to fight crime is one of the longest running and one of the most contested debates in American history. Cryptography -- the ability to communicate in an encoded language -- is merely the latest incarnation. This general meeting is designed to provide an overview of the issues as well as an update on current events of the last six months. Areas of discussion include -- what is being called the "CLIPPER II" proposal -- the Clinton administration is willing to ease export restrictions on high strength cryptographic algorithms if an escrow decryption key is available where law enforcement officials have access to it. Speaker : David Smith, President EFF-Austin -- the recent cracking of a Netscape cryptography algorithm advertised as "secured" and it's implications for the development of electronic commerce on the Internet. One function of cryptography is that it provides a unique identifier. If you can't be reasonably sure that the person at the other end of the connection is who you think it is, just how much money are you will to risk in an electronic transaction? Speaker : Brian Combs, President Austin World Wide Web Users Group; Austin Web Publishing; and Board member, EFF-Austin. -- Pretty Good Privacy. What is PGP, how does it work, who is Phil Zimmerman, and what is the legal status of all of this? Copies of PGP will be made available, as well as laptops to use for generating keys and keyrings. Speaker : Jim McCoy, Austin Cypherpunks. Other topics are sure to be discussed; this is just a starting point for discussion. EFF-Austin is a local grass roots organization created to protect civil liberties in cyberspace. We provide educational forums on the social, legal, and political consequences of cyberspace. For further information, contact EFF-Austin President David Smith via e-mail (bladex@bga.com).