huridocs-tech Press release - The Crypto Controversy: no problem

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From: Bert-Jaap Koops <E.J.Koops@kub.nl>
Subject: Press release - The Crypto Controversy: no problem
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 1999 16:14

Press release - please spread widely

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The Crypto Controversy: no problem
---------------------------

Tilburg, the Netherlands, 13 January 1999

The Dutch government should do nothing about the problem
that cryptography poses to law enforcement. All available
options have more negative than positive consequences. This
is the conclusion of Bert-Jaap Koops in his recently
published Ph.D. thesis "The Crypto Controversy". Although
encoding programs potentially leave law-enforcement
powerless to wiretap communications and to conduct computer
searches, there is not a real solution to retrieve the keys
to decipher encoded data.

Koops, author of the Crypto Law Survey website, conducted a
four-year research at Tilburg University and Eindhoven
University of Technology. He analyzed the conflict of
interests that cryptography poses to society. On the one
hand, encryption is crucial for information security and for
protecting privacy, but on the other hand, it enables
criminals to escape the scrutiny of law enforcement.
Governments are trying hard to address this conflict of
interests, but their proposals for regulation have been
controversial. The policy debate is polarized, with privacy
activists and law-enforcement agencies fiercely opposing
each other's point of view.

To address this crypto controversy, Koops discusses four
possible solutions: building-in Law-Enforcement Access to
Keys (LEAK systems), demanding suspects to decrypt, using
alternative investigation measures, and doing nothing. The
first option is flawed, because secure LEAK systems are not
yet available, and criminals will anyway not use crypto
which they know to contain a backdoor for the police.  The
second option, demanding suspects to decrypt, yields only
very limited opportunities, because of the privilege against
self-incrimination. Alternative investigation measures, such
as using directional microphones and intercepting radiation
from computer screens, can provide some leeway for the
police if wiretaps lose their efficacy, but they are serious
infringements of people's privacy.

Koops concludes that, for the time being, the "zero option"
is preferable: governments should decide upon a policy to do
nothing about the crypto problem. To meet developments in
crime and cryptography, this policy should be reviewed
periodically. "Perhaps the government will slowly have to
adapt to the idea that wiretapping is not a panacea for the
information need of the police."

As Koops suggests: "if there is no solution, there is no
problem either." Rather than continue to worry over the
crypto controversy, the government should concentrate its
energy and resources on other pressing social issues which
it can address.

--------------------------Publication details --------------------------

Bert-Jaap Koops, The Crypto Controversy. A Key Conflict in
the Information Society. The Hague / London / Boston, Kluwer
Law International, 1999, 301 pages, ISBN 90 411 1143 3.

A summary and ordering information are available at
http://cwis.kub.nl/~frw/people/koops/thesis/thesis.htm

-------------------------
Curriculum vitae
-------------------------

Bert-Jaap Koops (1967) studied mathematics and literature at
Groningen University. After working for Amnesty
International for two years, he started a Ph.D. research at
Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology at
the faculties of law, mathematics and technology management.
Since October 1998, he is a senior research fellow at the
Centre for Law, Public Administration and Informatization of
Tilburg University.

Koops is editor of the Dutch reference book Recht &
informatietechnologie. Hij co-edited a book on Emerging
Electronic Highways and has published widely on crypto
regulation, computer crime, and Trusted Third Parties. He
maintains an extensive worldwide survey of crypto laws on
the Internet.

-----------------------------

Bert-Jaap Koops <e.j.koops@kub.nl>
Tilburg University
13 January 1999


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