Article 2 from Knight/Ridder

[Matthew Lyle]

--
Matthew Lyle    	       	       	       	       	(214) 888-0474
OpenConnect Systems     	       	       	       	matt at oc.com
Dallas, TX                                      

"...and once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your 
    eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long 
    to return..."
Computer Group, Libertarians Question Clinton Phone Privacy Stance By Rory
J. O'Connor, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. 
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News 

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Apr. 17--Civil libertarians and a major computer industry
group raised concerns Friday about how much protection a Clinton
administration plan would afford private electronic communications, from
cellular telephone calls to computer data. 

The administration Friday said it would begin using technology developed by
the government's National Institute of Standards and Technology to balance
two competing interests: the desire of citizens to keep their conversations
private and the need for law enforcement agencies to monitor those
conversations after getting a court order. 

The technology that enables this is a computer chip called the Clipper Chip
that scrambles a telephone call or computer message using a secret
algorithm, or formula. 

But each chip also comes with a pair of electronic "keys" that could be
used by law enforcement agencies to decipher the secret messages generated
by the chip. 

The Clinton proposal calls for one key to be held by each of two separate
"trusted" third parties, who would release them to law enforcement agencies
that obtained legal authority to intercept the communications. Both keys
would be needed to decipher a message. 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a not-for-profit civil liberties group, 

praised the administration for considering the issue. But it criticized the
lack of public input into the plan. 

"They've announced a big inquiry with public input, but they've reached a
conclusion before they started," said Daniel J. Weitzner, staff counsel for
the Washington-based foundation. 

Although the administration's plan calls only for equipping government
telephones with the security devices, some groups are concerned the plan
might become a standard for all manner of electronic communication before
the public has a chance to debate its merits. 

"I don't want to sound too stridently opposed to this," said Ken Wasch,
executive director of the Software Publishers Association (SPA) in
Washington. "But...we feel blindsided." 

The SPA was discussing data security issues with Clinton administration
officials but had not expected any White House action until August, said
Ilene Rosenthal, general counsel. 

Besides the lack of initial hearings, both groups said they had two major
concerns about the Clinton plan: 

- Because the algorithm itself is secret, the groups say it is impossible
for the public to discern if it is truly secure. Users can't be certain
government spy agencies have not hidden a "back door" in the software that
will allow them to read anything they want. 

"So far there hasn't been a credible explanation about why the algorithm
has to be secret," Weitzner said. 

- The administration hasn't decided who will be the escrow agents, and it
seems unlikely any government agency, corporate entity or other
organization would be deemed trustworthy by every user. 

Even assuming all concerned can agree on who will hold them, civil
libertarians are concerned that the keys, by giving law enforcement
agencies access to individuals' private communications, might pose a threat
to constitutional protections against self-incrimination. 

Washington sources who requested anonymity suggested the White House might
have drafted its plan quickly because of concern over sales of an AT&T
device that encrypts phone calls using an older standard, Data Encryption
Standard. The sources said law enforcement officials feared the device
would create an explosion in secured telephone traffic that would severely
hamper their efforts to wiretap calls. 

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. announced Friday it would adapt the
$1,200 product, called the Telephone Security Device, to use the Clipper
Chip by the end of this fiscal quarter. AT&T makes a related device, which
encrypts voice and computer data transmissions, that could be converted to
the Clipper technology, said spokesman Bill Jones. 

Jones said he wasn't aware of any concern by the government over the
current model of the Telephone Security Device, which has been sold to
government and business customers. 

At least one company was quite pleased with the plan: San Jose chip maker
VLSI Technology, which will manufacture the Clipper chips for a Torrance
company that is selling them to the government and to AT&T. 

VLSI, which invented a manufacturing method the company said makes it
difficult to "reverse engineer" the chip or discern the encryption scheme, 

expects to make $50 million in the next three years selling the device,
said Jeff Hendy, director of new product marketing for the company.
END!A?SJ-SECURITY 



Transmitted:  93-04-18 21:06:00 EDT