WASHINGTON-The Senate plans to vote in May on compromise encryption legislation announced last week, but it is unclear whether the Clinton administration will back it.
While retreating from its previous attempt to impose domestic controls on encryption technology, the White House’s desired means of keeping computer data and telecommunications secure without compromising law enforcement and privacy rights continues to be at odds with Congress and industry.
Still, the administration and Congress appear to be getting closer to a deal.
Responding to a letter last week from Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on the need to find common ground on encryption policy, Vice President Gore continued to embrace a key recovery encryption approach.
“The administration remains committed to finding ways to preserve the ability of the nation’s law enforcement community to access, under strictly defined legal procedures, the plain text of criminally related communications and stored information,” said Gore.
Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies strongly support key recovery, a technique in which two entities hold “keys” that can be used-with court approval-to unlock scrambled messages in criminal cases.
Some in industry oppose key encryption, as do privacy advocates.
Indeed, the encryption plan unveiled last week by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, encourages but does not require key encryption.
“The compromises announced today are yet another example of the efforts to bring all of the interested parties together to solve the five-year debate that has been raging over encryption exports, and moves us one step closer to enacting legislation,” Kerrey said.
