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type: NYT (Copyright 1994 The New York Times)
priority: Regular
date: 02-12-94 1037EST
category: Domestic
subject: BC CYBER REVIEW
title: WHO KEEPS THE KEYS TO CYBERSPACE
author:  JOHN MARKOFF
text: 

       SAN FRANCISCO -- 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 of coding schemes that insure electronic
conversations are private -- from everyone including the
authorities.
       Under a plan being pushed by the Clinton administration, 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 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 guarantee that it won't be made 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 Sun Microsystems Inc., a maker of computer
work stations based in Mountain View, Calif. ``We refuse to do
it.''
       A Silicon Valley group called Cypherpunks, which wants to make
free and powerful cryptography available 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 universal standard may be like trying to enforce
Prohibition.
       Home-brew coding software can be easily exported by electronic
rumrunners 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 monitor
conversations. But some opponents argue that the system could still
be abused by government officials or clever hackers who are able to
steal the code.
       They also point out that despite claims that 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 United States spying agencies. Even
close allies like Canada and Britain have said they are not willing
to adopt Clipper.
       Last week, Michael Nelson, an administration official 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 encryption. 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 are discussing civil disobedience
strategies while mainstream groups like the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and the Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility
are organizing a lobbying attempt against Clipper.
       But some hackers 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 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 with the highway patrol.
       ``They were angry about Pretty Good Privacy,'' said Zimmerman.
``They're going to go ballistic over this.''