~terry
Sat, Feb 21, 1998 (16:43)
seed
This panel will focus on the moral issues stimulated by the increasing
use of encryption by private parties who are estranged from, or in active
opposition to, the government or society in which they live. The panel
will seek to avoid technical details and jargon and instead focus on the
moral choices posed by the slow spread of cryptography and by the
countervailing efforts of some governments to curb its spread and/or
control its strength. Audience participation will be encouraged.
A. Michael Froomkin, Moderator, University of Miami School of Law
Patrick Ball, Ph.D., AAAS Science and Human Rights Program
Peter Toren, United States Department of Justice
~terry
Wed, Mar 4, 1998 (07:14)
#1
Danielle Gallo:
Thursday closed with a controversial panel on 'Crypto and Privacy at
the Fringes of Society' moderated by Michael Froomkin from the
University of Miami School of Law (http://www.law.miami.edu/). Patrick
Ball of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program
(http://www.aaas.org) outlined security problems and provided crypto
solutions for human rights organizations. He stated that human rights
groups need encryption and digital signatures for protection. Ball
finds traffic analysis a major threat to privacy, and suggests the use
of anonymous remailers. Peter Toren from the United States Department
of Justice (http://www.usdoj.gov) took the opposing view (big surprise
there). Toren outlined the law enforcement perspective on crypto and
privacy. He stated that unbreakable encryption will threaten public
safety because it can be used to conceal criminal activity. He said,
"advances in technology should serve society not rule it."
Furthermore, Toren suggests that privacy and liberty must be protected
without leaving a harbor for criminality. Toren's comments created
strong response from the attendees and consequently, the question and
answer session was lengthy.
~terry
Wed, Mar 4, 1998 (07:14)
#2
In addition to the many thanks to Toren for actually attending, the Q
& A featured predictable responses from each side. Matt Blaze
expressed an interesting analogy in describing a paper shredder that
created a digital copy of a document and sent it off to a central
database. When a document was accidentally shred, the user could
contact the database and have a copy faxed. Also, Toren was pressed
about the encryption issue and repeatedly cited the significant
increase in cases that involve unrecoverable evidence due to
encryption. The government's case is made at
http://www.fbi.gov/congress/encrypt/encrypt.htm . Audience members
complained that the government repeatedly gives misleading information
about the difficulty of cracking various encryption schemes.
- Danielle Gallo