22 April 1997: Space/intelligence technology's embattled frontier European citizens and governments alike have expressed concern over the recent expansion of U.S. intelligence bases in Europe. The National Security Agency (NSA) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) are combining efforts at large sites known as regional SIGINT (signals intelligence) operation centers, or RSOCs. At a recent Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., NRO director Keith Hall said that the merging of the NSA and NRO bases is the first step in creating "collaborative systems of systems in signals intelligence." In the future, Hall said, those joint efforts could also include the U.S. Space Command, the service intelligence agencies and even commercial resources "borrowed" by the intelligence community. U.S. military officials have been surprisingly candid about their intent to take maximum strategic advantage of their information trump cards. Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall said, "Our allies must understand that we bring tremendous capabilities to the table, and it would be to their advantage to find ways we both can use [them]." In a more blatant revelation of U.S. sentiment, Gen. Howell Estes, commander of the U.S. Space Command, said the United States "is the only nation intellectually prepared for and morally capable" of controlling space-based intelligence. ---------- President, Senators Set to clash on Encryption Bent on retaining access to any and all data exported from the United States, the Clinton administration soon will solidify its position on Internet security issues and have a bill sponsored in the Senate. Meanwhile, microprocessing giant Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., which has been developing hardware-based encryption tools based on Cupertino, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard's International Cryptography Framework, is sitting tight, waiting to see how things play out on Capitol Hill. Intel already has submitted the framework for government review, but is closely guarding specifics about its encryption key lengths. ---------- SET 2.0 on the way - Encryption spec speeds e-commerce "SET 2.0 will be security-algorithm-independent," said Steve Mott, senior vice president for electronic commerce at MasterCard International. "The issue is not the underlying cryptography, and the problem is not with RSA's mathematics; it's how efficient [RSA's cryptography] is." Vendors such as Certicom, Apple Computer, and RPK are all positioning themselves as alternatives to market-leader RSA for providing encryption technologies. "We have SET 1.0 pilots going with elliptic curve cryptography," Mott said. Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC) is a technology that is being pushed by both Certicom and Apple. RPK, meanwhile, offers another alternative to encryption: Its Mixture Generator encryption engine performs both bulk and key encryption. ---------- A Smart Partnership Pretty Good Privacy Inc. and Schlumberger Electronic Transactions are teaming up to integrate their encryption and smart-card technologies. The two companies will interweave PGP's encryption software with Schlumberger's Cryptoflex smart card, which supports functions such as key and digital certificate storage and signatures. ---------- U.S. Seeks Laissez Faire on Internet The Clinton administration plans to tell the Internal Revenue Service and bank regulators to forget about new rules for Internet commerce in a policy paper that is scheduled to be released later this spring, Ira Magaziner said last week. It is unclear how far this laissez faire approach will go. Speaking at the same session, a top official in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative warned about the obstacles he sees in trying to get other governments to go along. He warned. "What do governments want to do? They want to regulate," he added. "It's ingrained to the system. It's almost a social-democratic ideal they want to fulfill." ----------- MITI to develop int'l electronic commerce technology The ministry will formulate a standard for authentication centers that use different data-verification methods. The new protocol would facilitate the exchange of encryption data among authentication centers around the world, thus allowing a business to verify the identity of a client in another country. MITI, which has earmarked over 10 billion yen (about 79.82 million dollars) for electronic commerce tests, is hoping to nurture Japan's own electronic commerce services and to narrow the technological gap with the U.S. ---------- BIL_due or http://jya.com/bildue.txt