UK's Trusted Third Parties

[John Young]

   Thanks to Professor Denning's pointer to this URL for the 
   UK's Trusted Third Parties regulatory intent. 
 
      http://dtiinfo1.dti.gov.uk/cii/encrypt/ 
 
 
   June 11, 1996 
 
 
   STATEMENT ON HMG POLICY CONCERNING USE OF ENCRYPTION ON 
   PUBLIC NETWORKS 
 
 
   PAPER ON REGULATORY INTENT CONCERNING USE OF ENCRYPTION ON 
   PUBLIC NETWORKS 
 
   1.  Summary 
 
   The Government recognises the importance of the development 
   of the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) with respect 
   to the continuing competitiveness of UK companies. Its aim 
   is to facilitate the development of electronic commerce by 
   the introduction of measures which recognise the growing 
   demand for encryption services to safeguard the integrity 
   and confidentiality of electronic information transmitted 
   on public telecommunications networks. 
 
   2.  The policy, which has been decided upon after detailed 
   discussion between Government Departments, involves the 
   licensing and regulation of Trusted Third Parties 
   (hereafter called TTPs) which will provide a range of 
   information security services to their clients, whether 
   they are corporate users or individual citizens. The 
   provision of such information security services will be 
   welcomed by IT users, and will considerably facilitate the 
   establishment of, and industry's participation in, the GII,  
   where trust in the security of communication has been 
   acknowledged to be of paramount importance. The licensing 
   policy will aim to preserve the ability of the intelligence 
   and law enforcement agencies to fight serious crime and 
   terrorism by establishing procedures for disclosure to them 
   of encryption keys, under safeguards similar to those which 
   already exist for warranted interception under the 
   Interception of Communications Act.   
 
   3.  The Government intends to bring forward proposals for 
   legislation following consultation by the Department of 
   Trade and Industry on detailed policy proposals. 
 
   [Balance snipped] 
 
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   Professor Denning also has comments dated June 11 on the 
   NRC cryptography report: 
 
      http://www.cosc.georgetown.edu/~denning/crypto/NRC.txt