-Caveat Lector- http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/chaostheory/story/0,3700,2398590,00.html The New Crypto-Commies Could arguing for strong encryption be the next 'un-American activity' that justifies blacklists and secret FBI investigations? By Kevin Poulsen November 24, 1999 Newly released documents show that the FBI closely monitored a key member of the standard-setting Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 1992 and 1993, as he waged a doomed battle to inject crypto support into an emerging critical Internet standard. William Allen Simpson, a Detroit-based computer consultant, was on the IETF. The team was developing the "Point to Point Protocol" (PPP), designed to facilitate Internet access over dial-up modems. Simpson was making waves in the PPP Working Group by loudly arguing for inclusion of crypto support in the protocol, which today is used by the vast majority of home Internet users to go online. In 1993, Simpson learned from a family member and colleagues that his efforts had drawn the FBI's interest. As he recalls it, the bureau was accusing him of a capital offense. "Two guys came up to me at a meeting," Simpson recalls. "They said, 'Bill, I was interviewed for a treason investigation by the FBI'." "Bill was advocating encryption for authentication and for privacy in standardized Internet protocols," recalls Electronic Frontier Foundation cofounder John Gilmore, who heard of the investigation and suggested that Simpson request his FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act. "He's kind of an iconoclast," Gilmore told me. "He follows his own way and sometimes it pisses people off, but it can be an advantage when you're faced with a Kafkaesque investigation by the government. He has the tenacity to stick with it until he finds the truth." After six years of wrangling, Simpson finally pried 54 pages from the grasping hands of the domestic spies last Wednesday, only to find that the documents were heavily censored. === http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/chaostheory/jump/0,3698,2398612,00.html Better Read Than Dead? The 54 pages of Simpson's file are filled with black lines. Under the caption "basis for investigation," there's nothing but an opaque mass of thick black ink. Most of the file, including the official reason for its existence, remains classified "secret" to this day, a designation supposedly reserved for information that would cause "serious harm" to US national security if revealed. Among the investigative insights deemed safe for disclosure, a 1992 teletype addressed to "Director, FBI," in Washington, which notes that Simpson's personality "fits the profile of a gadfly who challenges authority and laws that may impinge on his activities." The bureau also took an interest in the cars Simpson drove and whether or not he had a passport. But the glimpses of text between the bold slashes of black ink show that the G-men's real focus was the PPP Working Group, which the bureau monitored with the intensity once reserved for Communist Party meetings. After one Working Group meeting in New Mexico, agents from the local FBI field office were dispatched to "ascertain if subject came to any notice at the Santa Fe meeting." "There was an option to negotiate strong crypto," says Simpson. "As far as I can tell from the non blacked-out areas of the documents, someone decided that this might violate US export laws." In March of 1993, the FBI closed its investigation of Simpson, "in view of his idiosyncrasies," and the lack of corroboration that he'd done anything illegal. An anonymous colleague told the feds that he, or she, did "not believe Simpson has engaged in breaking United States export laws regarding the export of cryptographic devices or is interested in violating such laws at the behest of a foreign power." === http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/chaostheory/jump/0,3698,2399194,00.html The Secret History of Cryptography The early nineties were an era of misfires and overstepping by law enforcement agencies trying to lay down the law in a new, wired world that they didn't yet understand. Some of the segments of the documents that survived FBI redaction suggest that the bureau may have been acting in good faith, based on a bogus tip from one of Simpson's colleagues, rather than an evil attempt to influence the direction of technology with McCarthyism tactics. But, of course, that's just the part we can read. The rest is classified. We shouldn't forget that the early nineties also began a period in which the Internet's technical standards would become truly important, affecting people, laws, policy, and privacy. "It's still somewhat of a crazy time," says Simpson, who attended another IETF meeting in Washington, DC, two weeks ago, and spoke out against a proposal to make the Internet more wiretap-friendly for government spies. It will no doubt be another six years before the "gadfly" knows if that subversive act earned him a new, equally highly classified, FBI file. -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. 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