[108264] in Cypherpunks
Louis Freeh: "I have not given up on encryption"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Declan McCullagh)
Wed Feb 10 00:50:23 1999
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 00:38:18 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@y2kculture.com>
Reply-To: Declan McCullagh <declan@y2kculture.com>
>On February 4, FBI Director Louis Freeh testified before the Senate
>Appropriations subcommittee chaired by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).
>
>Since the topic was counterterrorism, the discussion naturally turned to
>encryption.
>
>You may remember the FBI in September 1997 persuaded one House committee to
>make it a federal crime to manufacture, sell, or import unapproved encryption
>devices (including hardware and software). That bill never made it to the
>House
>floor.
>
>-Declan
>
>********
>
>SEN. GREGG: Have you given up on encryption?
>MR. FREEH: I have not given up on encryption.
>SEN. GREGG: I thought you might have.
>MR. FREEH: And I am pleased to report that both the attorney general and I
>have had very good discussions with leaders of the industry. We have reached
>some agreements on the support of a technical center. In fact, the
>legislation
>
>that was passed in October gives us the authority to receive their offer of
>services and personnel to solve some of these problems on a case-by-case
>basis,
>
>if not on a global basis.
>And we're very optimistic about that. We also believe, however, that we need
>to
>come back to the Congress for authority and certainly for support in
>implementing a program where we have non-mandatory controls but incentives
>which
>will give our industry the impetus to continue to support what we want to
>establish.
>
>*******
>
>This is from Freeh's prepared statement:
>
>Terrorists, both abroad and at home, are using technology to protect their
>operations from being discovered and thwart the efforts of law enforcement to
>detect, prevent, and investigate such acts. Convicted spy Aldrich Ames was
>told
>
>by his Russian handlers to encrypt his computer files. International drug
>traffickers also are using encryption to avoid detection by law
enforcement.
>Most encryption products manufactured today for use by the general public
>are
>non-recoverable. This means they do not include features that provide for
>timely
>law enforcement access to the plain text of encrypted communications and
>computer files that are lawfully seized. Law enforcement remains in unanimous
>agreement that the continued widespread availability and increasing use of
>strong, non-recoverable encryption products will soon nullify our effective
>use of court authorized electronic surveillance and the execution of lawful
>search and seizure warrants. The loss of these capabilities will devastate
our
>capabilities for fighting crime, preventing acts of terrorism, and protecting
>the national security. Recently, discussions with industry have indicated a
>willingness to work with law enforcement in meeting our concerns and
assisting
>in developing a law enforcement counterencryption capability. I strongly urge
>the Congress to adopt a balanced public policy on encryption, one that
>carefully balances the legitimate needs of law enforcement to protect our
>Nation's citizens and preserve the national security with the needs of
>individuals.
>The demand for accessing, examining, and analyzing computers and computer
>storage media for evidentiary purposes is becoming increasingly critical to
>our ability to investigate terrorism, child pornography, computer-facilitated
>crimes, and other cases. In the past, the Subcommittee has supported FBI
>efforts
>to establish a data forensics capability through our Computer Analysis
>Response
>
>Teams. There is a need to further expand this capability to address a growing
>workload. Indeed, our limited capability has created a backlog that
impacts on
>both investigations and prosecutions.
>
>
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