Washington Post, Friday, 17 September 1999, Page A1
Curbs on Export of Secrecy Codes Ending
By Peter S. Goodman and John Schwartz
Washington Post Staff Writers
The Clinton administration yesterday handed the nation's technology
industry the long-sought right to freely export software that cloaks
electronic communications, setting aside years of warnings from law
enforcement and defense officials that such a step would endanger
national security.
With such worries in mind, the administration also announced
legislation that would give law enforcement greater resources to
combat the use of computers by criminals and terrorists, creating a
new FBI unit to focus on cracking codes.
But the administration dropped the most controversial element of that
effort - a provision, included in earlier drafts, that would have
allowed law enforcement officers to secretly search computers and
disable secrecy codes as a prelude to wiretapping.
The new policy, announced in an afternoon briefing at the White House,
delighted the high-tech industry, particularly those companies that
sell "encryption software," as the codes are known. Such software is
seen as critical to the continued growth of electronic commerce,
fostering security as more people send their credit card numbers over
the Internet.
For two decades, software companies have fought in vain for the right
to export encryption products free of stringent licensing
requirements. That aim has taken a back seat to worries that the codes
could be used by terrorists and other criminal elements to hide their
communications.
Such worries were decidedly muted at yesterday's briefing. After a
beaming Commerce Secretary William Daley declared that the new policy
will "basically open the entire commercial sector as a market for
strong U.S. encryption products," Attorney General Janet Reno said
she, too, was pleased.
"Today's announcement substantially relaxes export controls, allowing
American industry to compete fairly in the international marketplace,"
Reno said. "Law enforcement maintains its ability to protect public
safety."
Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, long an opponent of relaxing
the export ban, took the podium to declare that "the national security
establishment - the Department of Defense, the intelligence
community - strongly supports this strategy."
Pressed to explain the turnabout, Reno and Hamre said their concerns
were assuaged by the administration's pending introduction of
legislation called the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act of 1999,
which would give the FBI $80 million over the next four years to
establish the new code-cracking unit.
Reno acknowledged in her statement that "this legislation does not
provide any new authority for law enforcement to be able to obtain
usable evidence from criminals," though she later added that the
measure will shield law enforcement from having to disclose its means
of cracking codes.
Privacy advocates praised the administration's decision to abandon the
push for secret searches of computers. But some worried that even
within the new policy, the government would have room to weaken
constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.
"The question is, how should the Fourth Amendment protect my
information when it moves out of my desk drawer and out into the
network?" said Alan Davidson, staff counsel for the Center for
Democracy and Technology, a high-tech civil-liberties group based in
Washington.
At the briefing, Reno was asked the degree to which Vice President
Gore was involved in drafting the new policy. In seeking the
presidency, Gore is hoping for strong support from the high-tech
world. Tonight he is set to hold a fund-raiser in Los Altos, Calif.,
near Silicon Valley. Reno declined to characterize Gore's level of
interest, though she said she recalled two meetings with the vice
president to discuss the new policy.
High-tech leaders have long argued that efforts to deny terrorists
encryption tools are futile, given that such software is readily
available over the Internet.
In years past, individual shipments of encryption products required
federal licenses before export. Under the new policy, companies will
need one-time certification for their products. Then they will be free
to export as many shipments as they like.
"It's certainly a heck of a marketing opportunity for us," said Art
Coviello, who heads RSA Security, the company that owns the rights to
a widely used form of encryption.
Some analysts said the administration's previous stance endangered one
of the most promising high-tech sectors. The new policy prevents "a
slow, grinding disappearance of the U.S. crypto industry," said
Stewart Baker, who served as general counsel to the National Security
Agency and now represents high-tech companies. "In the end, I think
everybody realized that."
The administration's shift may also be attributed to the momentum that
has developed for industry-backed legislation that would have gone
even further to remove export limits - a fact noted yesterday by Rep.
Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.), sponsor of the Security and Freedom
Through Encryption Act (SAFE).
Goodlatte praised the new policy, calling it "huge." Still, he said he
will not withdraw his bill because the regulations spawned by
yesterday's announcement will not be released until December. "There
have been incidents where the regulations that have been implemented
haven't lived up to the billing," he said.
The administration promised to veto Goodlatte's bill, should it pass,
portraying it as a dangerous rollback of law enforcement authority.
"The only person who'd be safe if the SAFE bill were to pass," Hamre
said, "would be spies."
Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
