stealth% emacs -nw FBI director Freeh at Senate crypto hearings (Nando Times)
FBI director Freeh at Senate crypto hearings (Nando Times)

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              Freeh urges balanced approach in encryption policy
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      Copyright Š1997 Nando.net
      Copyright Š1997 The Associated Press
      
   WASHINGTON (September 3, 1997 6:21 p.m. EDT) -- A national policy
   covering technology that can scramble computer messages must balance
   law enforcement needs with the public's right to secure
   communications, FBI Director Louis Freeh said Wednesday.
   
   Freeh said increased use of encryption by terrorists, pedophiles, drug
   pushers and other criminals could jeopardize public safety if
   authorities can't decode messages in a timely fashion when given
   access to them.
   
   Without that capability, "our ability to investigate and sometimes
   prevent the most serious crimes and terrorism will be severely
   impaired," he told the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on technology,
   terrorism and government information.
   
   Freeh said most data-scrambling products on the market don't include
   features to help law enforcement break the codes. He also warned
   against encouraging widespread use of unbreakable encryption.
   
   Freeh said that he wasn't asking for new powers but that he was
   seeking a "Fourth Amendment that works in the Information Age." The
   Fourth Amendment offers protection against unreasonable searches and
   seizures.
   
   Under questioning, the FBI director said he favors mandatory
   requirements that manufacturers of encryption technology be required
   to make "keys" -- devices that can unscramble the codes -- available
   to law enforcement during criminal investigations. He conceded that
   such a system still wouldn't be 100 percent foolproof, but said it
   would be better than a system without it.
   
   He said law enforcement already was having problems.
   
   A major international drug trafficker recently used a telephone device
   to interfere with court-approved electronic surveillance, he said.
   Meanwhile, a laptop computer seized from an international terrorist
   contained encrypted files about a plot to bomb 11 U.S.-owned
   commercial airliners, Freeh added.
   
   "If we are unable to access and decrypt (messages) in real time we
   will be hard up to defend the country in many respects," he said.
   
   By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, The Associated Press
   
    Copyright Š1997 Nando.net