----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> ----- http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47635,00.html Senator Backs Off Backdoors By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com) 2:00 a.m. Oct. 17, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- Sen. Judd Gregg has abruptly changed his mind and will no longer seek to insert backdoors into encryption products. A spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican said Tuesday that Gregg has "no intention" of introducing a bill to require government access to scrambled electronic or voice communications. "We are not working on an encryption bill and have no intention to," spokesman Brian Hart said in an interview. Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Gregg strode onto the Senate floor and called for a global prohibition on data-scrambling products without backdoors for government surveillance. Gregg said that quick action was necessary "to get the information that allows us to anticipate and prevent what occurred in New York and in Washington." A few days later, Gregg told the Associated Press that he was preparing legislation "to give our law enforcement community more tools" to unscramble messages in hopes of fighting terrorists. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------