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News of Freedom Volume 1 Number 3
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***************-Another presentation from the News of Freedom-***************
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02/13/94 Volume 1 Number 3
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-This is our 3rd release, Enjoy!-
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The following is taken from the New York Times, The Week in Review,
February 13, 1994
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..This is probably the most distrurbing release of our so-far. Well, I'll
let you read it first & see what you think. He we go.
In Silicon Valley some of the country's best computer hackers are talking
about acts of civil disobedience in cyberspace. Their target is a plan by the
Federal Government to discourage a proliferation coding schemes that insure
electronic conversations are private - from everyone including the authorities.
Under a plan being pushed by the Clinton Administation, the computer industry
would be strongly encouraged to adopt a new data scrambling standard, embodied
in a device called the Clipper Chip, that would allow law enforcement agencies,
armed with the court orders, to eavesdrop on electronic communications.
Earlier this month, Vice President Al Gore said the proposed standard was
an important law and order issue for the Administration. The danger, he
warned, is that unchecked computer coding technology will make it possible
for terrorists and criminals to have secret electronic conversations. The
White House is also pressing for legislation that would require telephone
networks, cable companies and wireless communications services to install
systems that allow law enforcers to listen in...
While the Clipper system is voluntary today, a coalition of Silicon Valley
business executives and civil liberties advocates argues that there is no
guarentee that it won't be mandatory by a future Administration. In the
meantime, it could become a de facto standard as companies that want to do
Government business would have to install the chips in their products.
Furthermore the Government could use existing export laws to require Clipper
chips in any computers shipped to other countries. "They're asking us to
ship millions of computers abroad with a chip stamped J. Edgar Hoover inside,"
said John Gage, director of the science office at the Sun Microsystems Inc.,
a maker of computer work stations based in Moutain View, Calif, "We refuse to
do it."
A Silicon Valley group called Cypherpunks, which wants to make free and
powerful cryptography avaliable to the masses, has been discussing ways to trick
officials into thinking the keys to the Clipper code have been stolen. Others
are considering violating export restriction laws by sending thousands of
copies of encoding software out of the country over the Internet. In fact, the
ability to devise coding schemes - unbreakable even by the most powerful
supercomputers - is so widespread that trying to impose a unviersal standard
may be like trying to enforce Prohibition. Home-brew coding software can be
easily exported by electronic runrunners on computer disks or instantly sent
over electronic networks to any city in the world. With Clipper, which was
developed by the National Security Agency, communications are mathematically
scrambled with an unbreakable code, but an extra set of two keys - actually
long numbers - would permit authorized third parties to listen in, with the
same restrictions that now apply to wiretapping. As a safeguard, both keys
would be required to minitor conversations. But some opponents argue that
the system could still be abused by Government officals or clever hackers
who are able to steal the code. They also point out that despite claims that
the Clipper is necessary for national security, no other foreign Government
or foreign company has indicated that it is willing to use a coding system
that is breakable by the United Sates spying agencies. Even close allies
like Canada and Britian have said that they are not willing to adopt Clipper.
Last week, Michael Nelson, an Administration offical in charge of
technology policy, broadcast an electronic mail message over the Internet
to reassure computer users that the Government has no intention of enforcing
mandatory encrytion. But skeptics remain unpersuaded. "They are utterly
transfixed with the horrible vision of the nuclear armed terrorist," said
John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public
interest computer group that is campaigning to stop the Clipper chip. "This
is the last ditch effort of the old superpowers trying to establish imperial
control over Cyberspace." Across the Internet, activists aren't waiting for
the Government to back down. They're pressing ahead with their own coding
software and disseminating it over the networks. A programmer named Philip
Zimmerman has written free software called Pretty Good Privacy for protecting
electronic mail messages. The program touched off a Justice Department
investigation after it was sent overseas through international networks.
Now Mr. Zimmerman is working on another free program that will allow personal
computers, equipped with microphones, speakers and conventional high-speed
modems, to act as secure telephones, allowing their users to have private
conversations that can't be overheard. This promises to be about as popular
with Clipper supporters as radar detectors are will the highway patrol.
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First, I'm sorry that this article is so long, but hey, I didn't write
it: I was the one who typed it! Anyway, this is definitly a very interesting
article. We should all congratulate Mr. Zimmerman for his attempts to stop
the Clinton Administration from taking away our Freedom. This is a free
society and the gov't has no right to tap our electronic conversations. If
however it does become law, we'll just have to figure out another way to
spoil their plans, like we have always done.
-News of Freedom for Phreakers around the Globe-
