Encryption tool rekindles security debate
<<<... In the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, there were calls for the government to erect new barriers to cryptography to prevent its use from enabling enemies of the United States to communicate freely. Easily accessible cryptography for Internet calling may intensify that debate. "I'm afraid it will put front and center an issue that had been resolved in the individual's favor in the 1990s," said James Dempsey, policy director for the Coalition for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based public policy group. The Federal Communications Commission has begun adopting rules that would force Internet service providers and companies that use voice over Internet protocol to adopt the technology permitting law enforcement officials to monitor conventional telephone calls. But for now, at least, regulation exempts programs that operate directly between computers and not through a hub.
From the commission's perspective, "you can't regulate point-to-point communications, which I think will let Phil off the hook," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group in Washington. Zfone may face more of a challenge in Europe, where the British government is preparing to give the police the legal authority to compel both organizations and individuals to disclose encryption keys. But Zimmermann does not see those fearing government surveillance - or trying to evade it - as the primary market. The next phase of the Internet's spyware epidemic, he contends, will be software designed to eavesdrop on Internet telephone calls made by corporate users. more >>>