NSA lobbying for Clipper in Europe

[Allen J. Baum]

from sci.crypt...

The following article was printed on page 10 of the UK's
`Independent on Sunday' (13th Feb 1994).  It would seem that the
tentacles are spreading.

For those who haven't read it, James Bamford's book `The Puzzle
Palace' contains a fascinating history of the incestuous
relationship between the NSA and Britain's GCHQ.  No official UK
opposition can be expected.

Follow-ups to talk.politics.crypto please.
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How America Plans to bug the electronic age

BIG BROTHER JOINS SCRAMBLE FOR DATA

By Leonard Doyle

A high-ranking official of the National Security Agency,
America's largest and most secretive intelligence arm, is in
London with the task of selling the 16 governments of the
European Union and European Free Trade Association on the virtues
of a controversial electronic scrambling technology.

The Clinton administration hopes that the encryption devices will
become the global standard for anyone wanting privacy while using
cellular phones, computer networks and fax transmissions.  They
have a serious drawback for anyone looking for total privacy,
however.  The devices have a built-in `back-door' that will allow
spy agencies to listen in on all communications, or read faxes
and electronic mail.

Spy agencies in the US and Europe, with nearly 50 years'
experience of advanced technology in surveillance of citizens,
suspected criminals and foreign governments, have been concerned
for some time about developments that have put sophisticated
encryption devices within reach of many.

The agencies want to ensure that they are not left behind by the
rapid advances in high technology which have made telephone
scramblers and the mathematical codes used to encrypt computer
and fax data relatively cheap and easy to use.

The governments fear that electronic eavesdropping will be set
back decades if and when terrorists, money-launderers, drug
traffickers and unfriendly governments gain widespread access to
the technology.  The NSA is concerned that, despite the $30bn
(UK Pounds 21bn) a year it spends monitoring global
communications, it cannot keep pace with technological change and
the massive spread of encryption codes.

The NSA official, James Hearn, who until recently was the deputy
director for information security at NSA's sprawling headquarters
near Washington DC, is heading up a `liaison office' in London
with a colleague, Clint Brooks, according to reliable sources in
the computer security community on both sides of the Atlantic.
The US Embassy in London issued a pro forma denial about Hearn's
presence yesterday, saying: "There's nobody by that name here."

Mr Hearn is well known, however, to UK and European officials at
the cutting edge of efforts to control the spread of highly
sophisticated scrambling devices.  These encryption codes,
developed by private software companies, are putting
communication beyond easy reach of the NSA, Britain's GCHQ at
Cheltenham and France's DGSE, to name but a few `Big Ear'
agencies.

As a response, the US has developed an encoding device for
telephones and computers known as the `Clipper Chip', with a
`back door' that will allow spy agencies armed with special
electronic keys to eavesdrop.  When the Clinton administration
decided to press ahead with the controversial coding devices
last week, the computer industry and privacy campaigners reacted
with outrage.

"It's like trying to order people to use only resealable
envelopes for correspondence, so that no communication can ever
be private again," said David Bannisar of Computer Professionals
for Social Responsibility.

Big computer companies, including IBM and Apple, are bitterly
opposed to the new monitoring devices.  But AT&T, the US
telephone company, which is fast establishing itself in Europe,
will put the eavesdropping technology into the telephone
scrambling devices it sells in high street shops for about UK
Pounds 800 each.

The US is keen to ensure that similar electronic monitoring
technology becomes standard in the rest of the industrialised
world.  The NSA's Mr Hearn has the task of persuading governments
that the controversial Clipper Chip for telephones and a
technology called Tessera, for computer modems, is quickly
adopted, despite mounting opposition.

The US, European Commission and four European Union countries -
Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands - are already
deciding how to administer the dawning electronic age of
`information highways' which will bring an explosion in the use
of hi-tech in everyday lives.

A consultant to the European Commission who has worked on the new
encryption standards claims that those who object to US efforts
to regulate the market for encryption are `politically naive'.

"Whether we like it or not, the authorities will want to listen
in on our communications," he said.  "The Americans are to be
admired for being up front about it, when other countries are
doing the same thing anyway."

Experts in the field of information security often speak of
physical boundaries that now define the world being replaced by
electronic boundaries.  In this Orwellian world, which is at most
five years away, people will be issued with so-called `smartcards'
with microchips that can store their entire personal history.
The identity cards will be a passport for ordinary citizens, used
to store health records, for personal banking, paying for travel
and for identity checks at borders.

In the same way, companies and even countries will be expected to
use technology like the encryption Clipper Chip for date
transmissions.

"We are defining our new electronic world - which will become
increasingly important in a borderless Europe," the EU security
consultant said.

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