Re: [iwar] [fc:PGP.Author.Grieves.from.Terror]

From: Tony Bartoletti (azb@llnl.gov)
Date: 2001-09-21 19:14:16


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From: Tony Bartoletti <azb@llnl.gov>
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Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 19:14:16 -0700
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Subject: Re: [iwar] [fc:PGP.Author.Grieves.from.Terror]
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If the Wright brothers were alive today, would we be blaming them for 
unleashing the invention of aircraft upon the world?

Those who believe that the mathematicians of other countries could not 
produce arbitrarily strong cryptography are fooling themselves.  The 
law-enforcement and intelligence communities are right to lament the cruel 
laws of large numbers, but crypto cannot be controlled without 
criminalizing trafficking in random numbers.

____tony____


At 06:39 PM 9/21/01 -0700, you wrote:
>By Ariana Eunjung Cha,
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Friday, September 21, 2001
>
>The tears have come in the kitchen, the car and the shower, too.
>
>Like many Americans, Phil Zimmermann, a stocky, 47-year-old computer
>programmer, has been crying every day since last week's terrorist
>attacks.  He has been overwhelmed with feelings of guilt.
>
>Zimmermann is the inventor of a computer program called Pretty Good
>Privacy, or PGP.  He posted the tool for free on the Internet 10 years
>ago; it was the first to allow ordinary people to encrypt messages so
>only those with a "key" could read them.  No government or law
>enforcement agency has been able to get in.
>
>People warned Zimmermann back then that he could be putting powerful
>technology into the wrong hands.  He knew that was theoretically
>possible, but he also knew that the program could do good: His work
>created a way for people in oppressed countries to communicate without
>fear of retribution.
>
>Now the government is investigating whether Zimmermann's technology or
>another scrambler was used by the hijackers to coordinate last week's
>attacks, and U.S.  lawmakers are calling for new restrictions on the use
>and distribution of the technology.
>
>Zimmermann and other fathers of encryption say it may be too late, given
>that the technology has spread all over the world.
>
>In a telephone interview from his home in Burlingame, Calif., Zimmermann
>said he doesn't regret posting the encryption program on the Internet.
>Yet he has trouble dealing with the reality that his software was likely
>used for evil.
>
>"The intellectual side of me is satisfied with the decision, but the
>pain that we all feel because of all the deaths mixes with this," he
>said.  "It has been a horrific few days."
>
>Contributing to that is the hate e-mail he got Sunday night.
>
>It began, "Phil ‹ I hope you can sleep at night with the blood of 5,000
>people on your hands." PGP has become a "weapon of war," the e-mail
>continued, leveling the playing field between powerful countries like
>the United States and "zealots."
>
>Zimmermann read the words over and over again the next day, trying to
>think of a way to respond.  But in the end, the man who is known in the
>technology world for his rousing speeches and meticulous debates didn't
>know what to say.
>
>"He raises some points that many people are raising right now, namely
>that terrorists can use the technology," Zimmermann said quietly.  "But
>it overlooks the strong need for good crypto."
>
>The open policy the United States has today toward encryption arose out
>of years of debate in the 1990s.  Zimmermann was among the most
>prominent figures in the discussions, fighting against a government that
>threatened to jail him for posting his technologies online.  He also
>launched a campaign to convince Congress to ease restrictions on
>exporting the technology to other countries.  He won on both accounts.
>
>Zimmermann and other technologists now struggle with the Catch-22 that
>encryption presents.  If governments are given a backdoor or a master
>key to the encryption, as lawmakers like Sen.  Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) have
>suggested, it would defeat the purpose of the technology.
>
>It would cause problems, for instance, for a rebel fighter in Kosovo,
>whose brother e-mailed Zimmermann to tell him the technology was being
>used to relay messages from command center to command center,
>eliminating the need for human couriers.
>
>Another encryption pioneer, Matt Blaze, said there are also practical
>reasons why the technology shouldn't be restricted.  "I am extremely
>doubtful that this could be done without weakening computer systems, and
>the costs would be absolutely staggering," said Blaze, a researcher at
>AT&amp;T Labs.
>
>Then there are the civil liberties questions.
>
>"We should be careful not to make any rash decisions in the heat of the
>moment" that could have a negative impact on privacy, human rights and
>First Amendment freedoms for years to come, Zimmermann said.
>
>Back to Washtech.com Home
>
>© 2001 The Washington Post Company
>
>
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Tony Bartoletti 925-422-3881 <azb@llnl.gov>
Information Operations, Warfare and Assurance Center
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA 94551-9900





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