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Report
Networks and Community Compiled 013
NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : feb 8, 1994
Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging
LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing.
The 7th report of 1994 is the 13th weekly survey.
-------------------------------------------------
coverage in this issue included :
LEGISLATION CANADIAN NET NEWS DISCUSSIONS NEW SERVICES
TRENDS CLIPPER CHIP BACKGROUND REPORT
---------------------------------------------------
LEGISLATION
===========
The CLIPPER CHIP CONTROVERSY
The Clinton Adminstration - bowing to pressure from the
Intelligence Community - has decided to go ahead with the clipper
chip proposal.
Those interested in opposing this plan can participate in the
following activities. And hopefully, all of you are interested.
---------------------
CLIPPER PETITION
On January 24, many of the nation's leading experts in cryptography
and computer security wrote President Clinton and asked him to
withdraw the Clipper proposal.
The public response to the letter has been extremely favourable,
including coverage in the New York Times and numerous computer and
security trade magazines.
Many people have expressed interest in adding their names to the
letter. In response to these requests, CPSR is organizing an
Internet petition drive to oppose the Clipper proposal. We will
deliver the signed petition to the White House, complete with the
names of all the people who oppose Clipper.
To sign on to the letter, send a message to:
Clipper.petition@cpsr.org
with the message "I oppose Clipper" (no quotes)
You will receive a return message confirming your vote.
Please distribute this announcement so that others may also express
their opposition to the Clipper proposal.
In only 48 hours, over 2,400 people have signed on to tell the
President what they think of the Clipper proposal.
If you need more information on clipper ftp/wais/gopher to cpsr.org
/cpsr/privacy/crypto/clipper for a large selection of docs on the
proposal.
------------------------------------------
EFF [ the electronic frontier foundation ] offers something *you*
can do to support freedom and privacy. *Please take a
moment to send e-mail to U.S. Rep. Maria Cantwell
(cantwell@eff.org) to show your support of H.R. 3627, her bill to
liberalize export controls on encryption software.*
"I urge you to write to Rep. Cantwell today at cantwell@eff.org.
In the Subject header of your message, type "I support HR 3627."
In the body of your message, express your reasons for supporting
the bill. EFF will deliver printouts of all letters to Rep.
Cantwell. With a strong showing of support from the Net community,
Rep. Cantwell can tell her colleagues on Capitol Hill that
encryption is not only an industry concern, but also a grassroots
issue. *Again: remember to put "I support HR 3627" in your
Subject header.*
This is the first step in a larger campaign to counter the efforts
of those who would restrict our ability to speak freely and with
privacy.
The lack of widespread commercial encryption products means that
it will be very easy for the federal government to set its own
standard--the Clipper Chip standard. As you may know, the
government's Clipper Chip initiative is designed to set an
encryption standard where the government holds the keys to our
private conversations. Together with the Digital Telephony bill,
which is aimed at making our telephone and computer networks
"wiretap-friendly," the Clipper Chip marks a dramatic new effort
on the part of the government to prevent us from being able to
engage in truly private conversations.
P.S. If you want additional information about the Cantwell bill,
send e-mail to cantwell-info@eff.org. To join EFF, write
membership@eff.org. For introductory info about EFF, send any
message to info@eff.org.
The text of the Cantwell bill can be found on the Internet with the
any of the following URLs (Universal Resource Locaters):
ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Policy/Legislation/cantwell.bill
http://www.eff.org/ftp/EFF/Policy/Legislation/cantwell.bill
gopher://gopher.eff.org/00/EFF/legislation/cantwell.bill
It will be available on AOL (keyword EFF) and CIS (go EFFSIG) soon.
-------------------------------
IN ADDITION - ONE CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE IS INTERESTED IN DIRECTLY
HEARING FROM THE PUBLIC.
" Leahy's office said he *wants* to hear from the
public on the matter of holding hearings. Any and all comments
on the viability of the program, any concerns the public has,
should be sent to Leahy immediately, a staffer said. Leahy can
be reached at: Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC 20510;
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Technology and Law
Subcommittee said he would likely hold hearings "on the serious
issues raised" by Administration's announcement that it would
urge private sector to voluntarily adopt its Clipper Chip
technology. "Basically, what this means is that the United
States Government will hold the two keys to unlock any private
communication coded with this program," Leahy said. Citizens and
potential foreign customers aren't likely to see Clipper "as the
solution to privacy and security concerns," he said."
his phone number is 202-224-3406.
----------------------------------------
The recently posted summary from the Electronic Public Information
Newsletter contained several items of interest to the free-net
movement. We need unrestricted access to government information and
the depository library program is a major force for providing that
access. .......................
PUBLIC PRINTER ATTACKS NTIS FINAL RULE ON STEI: In a letter last
week (1/27) to the head of the National Technical Information
Services (NTIS), Public Printer Michael DiMario attacked NTIS's
final rule on agency transfer of scientific, technical, and
engineering information (STEI) to NTIS, while at the same time
inviting the agency to enter into an agreement with Government
Printing Office (GPO) to assure STEI is distributed to the nation's
depository libraries. DiMario told NTIS Director Don Johnson that
NTIS, in the final rule [Federal Register 1, Jan. 3, 1994, pp.
6-12], included new provisions related to the Depository Library
Program (DLP) without consulting GPO, which by statute is
responsible for the program. "We are dismayed that these new
provisions have been introduced as a final rule without
consultation or coordination with GPO," DiMario wrote. "....
SENATE PANEL TO HOLD HEARINGS ON GPO: The Senate Rules and
Administration Committee will hold hearings on Feb. 3 and 10 on the
Government Printing Office as referred to in H.R. 3400, the
National Performance Review, and Joint Committee on the
Organization of the Congress. A representative of the Office of
Budget and Management and Public Printer Michael DiMario are
scheduled to testify on Feb. 3. It is believed that Sally Katzen,
Director of the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
and possibly Deputy OMB Director Alice Rivlin will testify for OMB.
Other interested parties are being invited to testify on Feb. 10.
For more information on the complete ELECTRONIC PUBLIC
INFORMATION NEWSLETTER and subscription rates contact:
James McDonough epin@access.digex.net Tel/fax: (301) 365-3621
------------------------------------------
THE WINNER OF LAST WEEKS FLAME WAR OF THE WEEK CONTEST
is available for examination.: Legislation on National Knowledge
Strategy.
[ strangely enough the providers do not want additional on line
comments ] Your off-line comments are solicited. A draft is at
<gopher gopher.oss.net>, or <ftp ftp.oss.net>. Got to articles by
rds and down to "National Knowledge Strategy Act of 1994".
Comments received prior to 1600 ST on Friday would be especially
helpful, but comments at any time welcome.
------------------------------------------
NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER - NOW AVAILABLE ON LINE
Eric S. Theise <verve@well.sf.ca.us> - The Internet Domain Editor
for the well has kindly offered it space.
gopher://gopher.well.sf.ca.us:70/11s/Community/communets/net.com
CANADIAN NET NEWS
=================
GOVINFO IS A DISCUSSION FORUM FOR CANADIAN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
at all levels of government. The forum is established on the
DEC/VAX MAILSERV facility at the University of Saskatchewan.
To subscribe, send the message SUBSCRIBE GOVINFO (YOUR NAME) to the
following address: MAILSERV@SASK.USASK.CA
To post messages to GOVINFO, address them to GOVINFO@SASK.USASK.CA
More information on MAILSERV commands may be obtained by sending
the message
HELP to MAILSERV@SASK.USASK.CA
If you have any questions or need assistance, contact:
Andrew Hubbertz hubbertz@sklib.usask.ca (306) 966-5989
------------------------------------------
ALSO OF INTEREST - A RECENT REGISTRANT IN THE CANADIAN DOMAIN
Organization: Canada Communication Group - Groupe Communication
Canada
Type: Federal Government Agency
Description: Group responsible for distribution of Canadian
Federal Government information in machine-readable form.
Admin-Name: Roddy Duchesne
Admin-Title: Manager, Electronic Products
Admin-Postal: Canada Communication Group, Electronic Publications
Admin-Phone: +1 613 956 5782
Admin-Mailbox: admin@ccg-gcc.ca
Tech-Name: Roddy Duchesne
Tech-Title: Manager, Electronic Products
-----------------------------------------
CANARIE IS LOOKING FOR PROPOSALS
NOTICE of Pending Request for Proposal
Operational Network Product / Services
January 27, 1994
It is the intention of CANARIE Inc. to release a Request for
Proposal (RFP) on February 1, 1994 relating to the following areas
of interest. It is expected that the RFP will close on Tuesday
February 22, 1994. This is a notice pre-announcing the RFP only.
The CANARIE Inc. Operational Network Product / Services (ONPS)
Committee has identified as a funding priorities the development
of capabilities to facilitate the Access, Presentation, and
Exchange of Information on the operational network as follows:
Information Provider Capability - For the following information
categories, CANARIE Inc. will provide funding in support of
developing and implementing an information provider capability.
Note that CANARIE Inc. will not necessarily fund projects relating
to all of these categories and that CANARIE Inc. will consider
information provider projects which may not readily fit into any
of the identified categories.
Cultural Information
Educational / Education Administration Information
Not-For-Profit Information
Commercial Information
Information Presentation / Interaction Product Development
CANARIE Inc. will assist with the development of products which
enhance user access to and/or interaction with information
available on the operational network.
Note that projects may overlap the two general categories of
Information Provider and Information Presentation / Interaction
Product Development.
Parties interested in submitting a proposal should provide contact
information including name, postal address, e-mail address (if
applicable), telephone number and facsimile number via facsimile
or e-mail to Mr. Rod Anderson at: wcsrda@ccs.carleton.ca
Fax: (613) 722-1997
----------------------------------
CANARIE : In recent posting to com-priv, Canarie has been assaulted
for policies that it probably will be forced to change under the
new rules to be developed in Canada. Internally, Canarie member
NSTN (the provincial network in Nova Scotia) has opened offices in"
Ottawa, and is actively attracting members away from ONET, and"
competing with Hookup, UUNET Canada and the other providers
operating in that most lucrative of all Canadian markets. This is
in violation of the existing informal operating agreements against
cross competition.
In a recent posting - Vinton Cerf - the father of the Internet
wrote:
> for all practical purposes, if you purchase Internet access
> from a provider who does NOT exact any restrictions from
> users (e.g. UUNET/Alternet, PSI, CERFNET, SPRINTLINK, etc)
> then you can make use of the system for any purpose.
> The NSFNET backbone limitations are going to evaporate
> shortly since NSF is getting out of the backbone service
> business anyway. I suggest you just plunge in assuming
> the system is essentially free of restrictions.
As noted above the electronic boundaries between commercial and non
commercial nets have almost disappeared in the U.S. It will happen
in Canada too.
DISCUSSIONS
===========
I have added the COM-PRIV listserv to my monitored group. With this
addition, I may have a weekly winner for my new FLAME WAR contest.
Participants in the best flame war of the year will be personally
rewarded with a CERTIFICATE from Networks & Community. A very high
standard has already been set by last year's award winners - the
inter listserv battle between cypherpunks and cypherwonks.
NPTN LISTSERV announced 7 new committees had joined. A complaint
was made about a commercial company seeking a grant along with a
public television station for the available community network
funding from PBS. [ if PBS can't tell the difference between a
private company and a community based effort - we are all in
trouble ]
Little else of vital interest appeared on the listservs.
NEW SERVICES
============
USNONPROFIT-L MAILING LIST IS READY
The nonprofits mailing list is set up and ready to broadcast:
to subscribe, mail to : majordomo@rain.org
in the message, type : subscribe usnonprofit-l (no name
necessary)
messages to the list go to: usnonprofit-l@rain.org
The USnonprofit list is a discussion group for issues facing
nonprofit organizations, and the people in the less-advantaged
sectors of society that they serve.
Particularly encouraged are *action-oriented* discussions :-).
For more info write to Thomas Andrew Newman <newmant@CSOS.ORST.EDU>
--------------------------------------------
THE COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY IS AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE VIA THE CNS
gopher! (gopher cscns.com)
For information about CNS, write to info@cscns.com, or call
customer service at 800-748-592-1240.
-------------------------------------
FREE S. D. I. ON THE INTERNET
[selective dissemination of information]
In the most exciting positive announcement of the past week
Tak Woon Yan tyan@Woodstock.Stanford.EDU
announced a free Netnews Filtering Service
"I'd like to announce the Stanford Netnews Filtering Service, a
personalized netnews delivery service. You subscribe to the service
with profiles that describe your interests. Netnews articles (from
newsgroups available to our local news host) that match your
profiles (based on content, regardless of which newsgroups they
fall into) will be sent to you periodically via email.
You can access the service from Mosaic:
http://woodstock.stanford.edu:2000
The service also supports email access. To get the instructions on
the email interface, send a message with the word "help" in the
message body to netnews@db.stanford.edu
Here is an example to give you some ideas of how the service works.
Say you subscribe to the service with the profile "online
information services." Then periodically you will receive email
messages like this:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subscription 1: online information services
Article: misc.activism.progressive.11965
From: hn0003@handsnet.org
Subject: HandsNet WEEKLY DIGEST 1/15-21
Score: 84
First 15 lines:
HANDSNET WEEKLY DIGEST January 15 - 21, 1994
News from HandsNet's Information Forums
HandsNet is a national, nonprofit network connecting
organizations working on social and economic justice issues.
Members use HandsNet to make new contacts, work collaboratively and
to find and publish information, news ....
Article: ca.politics.38420
From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin)
Subject: GOV-ACCESS #5:Cal.Emergency Svcs.online + Net-fax + MINN
Pub Info Net
Score: 82
First 15 lines:
Jan. 22, 1994
CALIFORNIA OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES INFO AVAILABLE ONLINE
<a recent exchange of messages>
The state Emergency Digital Information Service is working fine
Telnet to telnet oes1.oes.ca.gov 5501
....
The profiles are like queries in WAIS, i.e., plain English text (no
boolean AND, OR, NOTs). After you receive useful articles, you can
feed them back to the service to improve your profile. You can also
adjust the frequency of delivery, the volume of articles, and the
length of subscription.
Hope you find the service useful. Questions, comments to
tyan@cs.stanford.edu.
---------------------------
REALLY IMPROVED INTERNET ACCESS:
John Doyle, Washington & Lee University, doylej@liberty.uc.wlu.edu
wrote to say his new service is ready for use. I mentioned it in
a prior issue. This is a database of high-level sites throughout
the Internet. gopher to:
liberty.uc.wlu.edu 1020 or WWW to http://liberty.uc.wlu.edu:1020]
It includes subject and geographic access to resources. There is
even access to a searchable usenet news reader.
(root menu)
<search> Search:
<menu> Menu: Subject
<menu> Menu: Type (Telnet, Gopher, WWW)
<menu> Menu: Geographic
<menu> Recent Additions (date coded entries)
<document> [Netlink Server - This Item for Help]
<menu> [Netlink Server - Please Leave Comment or Error Report]
----< Other Major Internet Services >----
<search> High-Level Search of Gopher Menus (no field searching)
<menu> Veronica Search of Gopher Menus
type x WWW (WorldWideWeb Browser - Lynx)
<menu> USENET Newsreaders
<menu> WAIS
<menu> BITNET Mailing Lists/Listservs Archive Searches
<menu> Archie FTP Site Searches
<menu> Clearinghouse of Subject-Oriented Internet Resource
Guides (UMich)
<menu> Netfind Email Address Searches
<menu> "Phone Books" at Various Institutions
<menu> Local Times Throughout the World
<menu> Hytelnet (Telnet Login to Sites)
-----------------------------------------------
BASIC WEB INFO AVAILABLE
This is an announcement of a series of postings starting January
17, 1994, on the newsgroup embnet.net-dev in order to provide an
introduction to the World-Wide Web project. The goal is to answer
the very basic questions as what is the World-Wide Web, what is
available on the Web, what software is required to access the Web,
and how to get and install the software. It is not intended to
guide people who want to provide information to the Web. Its for
those who have access to the Internet and are interested in
obtaining and setting up the programs needed to access the Web.
Previous experience with network retrieval tools are not essential
but knowledge in the use of FTP would be an advantage.
Anyone who is interested in receiving these introductionary
postings but cannot read the newsgroup embnet.net-dev can send an
email request to www@comp.bioz.unibas.ch.
----------------------------------------
NCSA MOSAIC FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS VERSION 2.0ALPHA1 RELEASED
NCSA Mosaic is a network navigational tool that will
allow you to easily access networked information with the click of
a button. The Internet is the primary source of this world wide
information and the amount of available information is literally
exploding. Mosaic is capable of accessing data via protocols such
as Gopher, World Wide Web, FTP and NNTP (Usenet News) natively, and
other data services such as Archie, WAIS, and Veronica through
gateways. NCSA Mosaic was designed to provide its user
transparent and seamless access to these information sources and
services.
Mosaic is a product that will retrieve and display a wide variety
of data types. These types include text, images, movies and audio.
Version 2.0alpha1 of Mosaic is available via anonymous FTP on
NCSA's FTP server, "ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu"(141.142.20.50), in the
directory "/PC/Mosaic". The file is wmos20a1.zip.
--------------------------------------------
YOU CAN NOW VIEW INFORMATION ON THE RURAL DATAFICATION PROJECT
on-line, using Gopher and the World Wide Web.
Via Gopher: gopher.cic.net
CICNet Projects and Gopher Servers
Rural Datafication Project
Via WWW: hhtp://www.cic.net/
-----------------------------------
TRENDS
======
Serious concern over network related social issues is growing in
the US. In its 'Agenda for Action' document, the Administration has
set forth a positive vision of what the NII can be," said Dr.
Roberts. "To achieve that vision, however, the government must
play a major role in the design, development, and regulation of the
network."
CPSR [ computer professionals for social responsibility ]
has recommended that the Administration adopt the following
policies:
o Promote widespread economic benefits by evaluating the NII's
economic success using measures that reflect its impact on the
society as a whole, not merely the profits of NII investors and
service providers.
o Evaluate the social impact of the NII by conducting periodic
reviews as the NII is implemented and used to guarantee that
it continues to serve the public interest.
o Guarantee equitable and universal access through an appropriate
mix of legislation, regulation, taxation, and direct subsidies.
o Promote the development of a vital civic sector by ensuring
resources, training, and support for public spaces within the
NII where citizens can pursue noncommercial activities.
o Promote a diverse and competitive marketplace in terms of the
content carried over the NII.
o provide access to government services and information over the
NII.
o Encourage democratic participation by ensuring full public
disclosure, and actively promoting democratic decision-making
and public participation in all stages of the development
process.
o Actively facilitate the seamless connection of America's NII
with the information infrastructures of other nations by
working to resolve such issues as security, censorship,
tariffs, and privacy.
o Guarantee the functional integrity of the NII by establishing
critical technical requirements including ease of use,
widespread availability, full functionality, high reliability,
adequate privacy protection, and evolutionary expansion.
The recommendations follow from a yearlong review of the NII
conducted by CPSR. The process included collecting more than 1,200
suggestions for NII policy from network users across the country,
drafting a report, holding special chapter meetings on the NII in
Berkeley, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and having a
multiple-draft review process by the membership.
CPSR is planning a conference next April in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on the future of the NII, The Directions and
Implications of Advanced Computing. The conference will
investigate at a more specific level how to achieve the principles
in the CPSR report.
CPSR's NII paper is available electronically by sending email to
listserv@cpsr.org. In the message write the command
GET CPSR NII_POLICY or you can also FTP/WAIS/Gopher
cpsr.org:/cpsr/nii_policy.
For a hard copy of the paper or for more information about CPSR ,
call 415-322-3778 or write to cpsr@cpsr.org.
BACKGROUND ON THE CLIPPER CHIP PROPOSAL AND ITS BENEFITS
--------------------------------------------------------
[ This is a serious matter, but I couldn't resist throwing some
irony into the subject- ed ]
This proposal is best understood in the context of the history of
the western intelligence community.
The ability to secretly intercept the communications of others has
been vital to covert action since the earliest days of
international telecommunications. When the first transatlantic
cable was laid between Britain and the U.S. in 1927; its operations
where monitored by secret agreement between both countries.
Britain would capture and analyze all calls coming from the U.S.
and the Americans would do the same with british traffic. Relevant
material would be sent back to each other. This allowed both
countries to honestly proclaim they were not spying on their own
citizens, while benefiting from the fact that someone else was.
By the end of the second world war; a war that the allies won
primarily because of strategic advantage gained from superior
telecommunication interception; the english speaking powers agreed
to create a multinational agency to capture all the information in
the world. Every newspaper, radio broadcast, t.v. transmission, and
international telegraph or phone call was to be captured and
recorded and stored for possible future analysis.
That agreement is still in place. The publications of the FBIS [
Foreign Broadcast Information Service ] are an example of the
publicly disclosed results of the joint monitoring program.
Today, Canada intercepts private communication in the U.S. and vice
versa. This is not illegal. Each country's laws forbid it from
invading the privacy of its own citizens. These same laws
intentionally provide no such protection for the communications of
other nations.
The Internet began as a service of the U.S. military. It is
impossible to believe that national security considerations were
not incorporated into its design. To this day the highest level
technical meetings on Internet design in the U.S. can only be
attended by individuals with security clearances.
The Internet is above all an international network. Messages travel
around the globe in fractions of a second. From an intelligence
perspective this amounts to providing an unwanted window on the
U.S. to the rest of the world. A disloyal government employee could
encode a document - and send it over the internet to anyone in the
world. An illegally distributed document, once securely encoded may
be captured, but unless it is crackable, the government would be
hard put to determine the nature of the damage done to its security
interests, because it could not determine what document it had in
its possession. The recent decision of the Department of Defence
to end Internet access for most of its employees is grounded in
these considerations.
Similar considerations arise for companies that depend on technical
secrets for their market advantage, or that wish to be certain that
their strategies can not be discovered by competitors.
Ordinary citizens also value privacy.
Of course - the internet isn't the only problem technology. Digital
cellular phones will soon be voice activated and may weigh less
than an ounce. The same disloyal government employee will then be
able to capture and encode a document. Then, with the aid of a
cellular modem, broadcast it to any point on the globe.
-------------------
A good situation for a national intelligence service is one in
which your own communications are untapable, while everyone else's
are easily accessed. The ideal situation exists when everyone
believes that their own systems are secure - when they are in fact
not secure.
The clipper chip proposal - if universally adopted - would appear
to provide the U.S. government with a nearly ideal solution to a
crisis that has arisen in connection to the Internet.
The crisis arises from the fact that cheap secure encryption
software and now hardware has become globally available for the
first time; from Albania to Zaire everyone who owns a computer can
guarantee their own privacy. In essence - the cat is already out
of the bag and a desperate effort is underway to stuff it back in.
Accepting that a genuine problem exists. Is the Clipper chip
proposal a reasonable solution. If it is not a reasonable solution,
are their other - better approaches. Or, will one have to accept
the fact that the nature of the struggle for advantage through
technical espionage has changed.
-------------------------------
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND WHO ARE THE LIKELY
BENEFICIARIES
The Clipper Chip proposal is an excellent solution if you are a
foreign company or nation interested in obtaining competitive
economic advantage over the United States. I expect that foreign
governments will begin lobbying immediately for adoption of the
proposal in the U.S. Here is why.
It will not prevent them from using effective encryption outside
of the U.S.
The United states represents only about 18% of the global market
place but it currently dominates in several hardware and software
categories.
These include supercomputers, network software and hardware,
desktop software, cpu chips, most categories of business software
for all classes of machines.
With adoption of these proposals - each of these categories will
become easier to gain market share in outside of the U.S.
Intel and Microsoft and Novell along with IBM, Thinking Machines
and Wais should all see significant declines in their market share.
Network Service providers like AT&T or Sprint should be easy to
defeat as they try to sell services in external markets.
If similar legislation is also passed in the area of cellular
communications, we can expect to see a dramatic decline in the
market share for Motorola products as well.
In the future as research on encryption techniques comes to a
standstill in the U.S. Foreign firms will be able to develop
optimized encryption standards that will meet the demands for the
emerging Multimedia market. Multimedia vendors seeking product
protection need efficient encryption standards to allow protection
of property rights. Encryption standards that slow down
transmission or minimize the effectiveness of compression
techniques will help guarantee the success of foreign firms.
SHOULD FOREIGN FIRMS REALLY SPEND MONEY ON LOBBYING.
Yes, despite the past history of success by the intelligence
community in crippling U.S. competitiveness in overseas markets in
areas like desktop computing and database software, and despite
that community's success in making U.S. companies the final
entrants in the Vietnames market and the China market; you can not
count on the continuing willingness of the American people to
accept these impediments.
In addition U.S. passage of this legislation may actual improve the
competitive advantage of a well prepared nation or corporate group.
U.S. history is replete with examples of trusted individuals who
have used intelligence information for private gain or sold it for
other reasons.
When men like former the multimillionaire Director of the CIA,
William Casey, had to be stopped from using intelligence
information for personal gain by Congress; there are probably few
serious limits the corruptablity of intelligence community staff.
And the clipper chip proposal is based upon trusting the keys to
chip's security system in the hands of low paid bureaucrats. Men
who may include among their ranks individuals like the Walker
Family who sold satellite intelligence secrets to the Russians for
peanuts.
The real danger here is that the U.S. might actually begin work on
improved encryption standards for incorporation in U.S. made
products. Such activity would create market advantage for American
companies.
ISN'T IT A DANGER TO OTHER COUNTRIES AND COMPANIES IF ENCRYPTION
THAT IS NOT BREAKABLE IS IN WIDE USE?
Not really. The Soviet Union and Israel managed to coexist with the
United States even though the U.S. was incapable of breaking their
codes. Both countries were themselves unable to break US coded
communications. Both countries successfully employed spies and
informants to obtain material and information that was otherwise
protected from decipherment. Both countries shared intelligence
information obtained from the U.S. So this raises the possibility
that foreign firms or nations could unite in obtaining economic
advantage over the US.
Because plans must be turned into action - existing national
technical means are sufficient to guarantee the physical security
of the U.S.
AREN'T THERE OTHER REAL BENEFITS TO THE US FROM THE ADOPTION OF
SUCH SYSTEMS?
Well, if the U.S. government adopted the clipper chip standard for
all its internal communication. It would be able to gain some
control of untrustworthy employees who wished to use technical
means in subverting the US. People like Jonathan Pollard who simply
physically removed documents from their safe storage sites, would
of course be unaffected. Similarly the Walker family was exposed
only because of a family feud.
WHAT ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME ETC.
The US government's inability to prevent the ongoing success of
organized crime despite the availability of wire taps and
informants is a testimony to the intelligence of these criminal
organizations. Implementation of the clipper chip proposals will
not result in any change in their successful strategies for
avoiding monitoring.
ISN'T THERE ANYONE WHO WILL DEFINITELY BENEFIT FROM THIS?
Yes, some company will get the contract for these chips.
==============================================
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS: this issue arrives a day late so that I
could include late breaking information on the Cipper chip issue.
A recent post to communet correctly noted that the editing of this
newsletter is poor. I would welcome any OFFER TO EDIT this
publication. I already spend 10 - 15 hours a week on it and just
can't spend any more.
==============================================
NETWORKS and COMMUNITY is a public service of FUTURE DATA; a
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For commercial services contact Gwyneth Store - circa@io.org
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