huridocs-tech GILC ALERT May 18th

GILC Newsletter May 19th, 1999

USES OF THE NET
[1] Internet Facilitates Information Exchange in Cambodian Diaspora
[2] E-mail Empowerment in Indonesia
[3] Email Introduced In Cuba
[4] US Trade Embargo Threatens to Shut down B92 Internet Transmissions

CONTENT REGULATION
[5] Australia Update On Net Censorship Bill And EFA's Campaign Against It
[6] South Africa Amends Child Pornography Law To Cover The Internet

INTERCEPTION
[7] FBI Founded Group ILETS Leads Initiatives To Build Comprehensive
Interception Systems
[8] Russian Human Rights Group Launches Challenge To Secret Police
Surveillance Of Internet
[9] Dutch Law Goes Beyond Enabling Wiretapping To Make It A Requirement
[10] German Government Intends To Install Strict Internet Surveillance
Infrastructure
[11] India Announces Net Surveillance Plan
[12] ISP In Singapore Apologizes To Its Subscribers After Scanning Their
Computers
[13] IC2000 Report Strasbourg and Barr Amendment, United States: On
Communications Interception And ECHELON

ENCRYPTION
[14] US 9th Circuit Rules Encryption Regulations Unconstitutional


USES OF THE NET
============================================================================
[1] Internet Facilitates Information Exchange in Cambodian Diaspora
============================================================================
Salon Magazine reports that the Internet has facilitated the work of Rainsy,
a Cambodian democratic political opposition leader.  Rainsy fled to safety
to the United Nations after Cambodian Strongman Hun Sen, in control of the
army and courts, ordered his arrest based on unprecedented charges and
initiated a crackdown on mass protests against his disputed electoral
victory last year.  According to the leader of that opposition, the Net in
Cambodia today is a lifesaver.

The Sam Rainsy Party Web site has made it possible to make it views
available.  The web site was developed by members of the large Cambodian
Diaspora after Hun Sen's crackdowns.  Since then it has evolved into an
impassioned website that receives about 300 hits per day.  The site, which
is updated three or four times weekly and the party's massive e-mail
distribution list serve other crucial opposition needs including bringing in
funds, forming a virtually uncensorable link to the hundreds of thousands of
Cambodians in the United States, France and Australia. Emails make
information available to human rights groups like Amnesty International and
would result in fewer illegal arrests and murders, hopes Rainsy.
"Dictatorships are afraid of the truth. . . Democracy is based on truth and
truth is made of information" he asserts.

Before the growth of the Internet, distributing key information abroad was
prohibitively expensive for the opposition. But now Rainsy's American
information officer, Rich Garella, was able to set up his own server at
minimal cost. Overseas supporters can print out e-mail and Web site
information and photocopy it for acquaintances in places like the 50,000
member Cambodian community of Long Beach, California.

While Rainsy's gamble that international donors can save him from Hun Sen's
wrath has generally served him well, the strategy has not always worked for

vocal supporters in the remote countryside where communications are weak,
and human rights organizations are not always able to keep tabs on Hun Sen's
local party leaders.

Story adapted from "E-mail is a real revolution" by Kyra Dupont and Eric
Pape. For full story
see,<http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/feature/1999/03/15feature.>

============================================================================
[2]	E-mail Empowerment in Indonesia
============================================================================
Moderator Nani Buntarian helped Indonesian women launch the women's egroups
list in July of 1998 to provide a "clearing house tool" for the numerous
women's organizations that emerged after the resignation of former
president Soeharto. The sudden surge in women's activism prompted a group of

activist women to form the Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and
Democracy, which held weekly planning meetings to capitalize on the momentum
for change. "We wanted our fair share of voice in the changes made for the
country," Nani explained in a recent email message to NetAction webmaster
Judi Clark.  "A lot of information needed to be shared.  We needed a
mechanism to quickly disseminate information and circulate feedback to
create parity of awareness between the women in Jakarta (the capitol) and
our peers elsewhere in the vast archipelago."

Nani was able to establish an email list because many of the women's
organizations scattered among the islands were already on-line. Not everyone
involved had access, but with at least one email address per province, she
established "local hotspots" from which information could be forwarded to
other women's organizations or groups in the area through more traditional
methods of communication. The list proved to be an effective means of
generating awareness among the groups of each other's activities. This
helped to foster coordinated action and commitment to common positions on
such issues as human rights violations and violence.

The importance of the list was increasingly evident as women's groups were
preparing for the Indonesian Women's Congress, which took place in December.
Invitations to the conference were circulated to about 60 list subscribers.
With only one week's notice to register, the organizers anticipated about
150-200 participants. Instead, they received more than 500 applications in
just seven days.

"All this is due to the simple power of a humble email list," Nani told
NetAction. "I dream of greater IT empowerment in the local women's movement
that will give us greater independence in controlling our information access
and distribution." The Indonesian women's egroups list has now grown to more
than 100 subscribers.

In addition to political activism, women use the Internet to network with
peers, conduct research, archive women's history, and support women's
business ventures. Among the thousands of women-oriented web sites,
NetAction found the following to be noteworthy:
WomensNet at IGC, <http://www.igc.org/igc/womensnet/>
Online Women's Business Center, <http://www.onlinewbc.org/>

The Backyard Project, <http://www.backyard.org/>
The Role Model Project for Girls, <http://www.womenswork.org/girls/>

This article is adapted from NetAction Notes, Issue No. 48, April 30, 1999.

============================================================================
[3] Email Introduced In Cuba
============================================================================
Steve Kettman reports for Wired magazine online at http://www.wired.com on
email recently becoming available to significant numbers of Cubans for the
first time. It was introduced at the University of Havana, where there's
always a wait to use one of the five 1986 IBMs that serve as the email
center at the university's Central Library. Other than government offices
and luxury hotels, Havana University is one of the few places that have
email.

None of the Cubans interviewed by Wired magazine had any illusions about
email privacy. It's known that every email sent from the university account
is automatically copied into an archive. It's equally known that the email
is being copied elsewhere, too. A new anti-sedition law enacted in February
increases the penalty to 20 year's imprisonment for any act deemed to
undermine the authority of Castro's government. How the law is applied
remains to be seen, but so far there haven't been any publicized cases
involving email. Someone who called himself Nick interviewed by Wired
magazine said of a friend: "She wrote an article about Cuba today and sent
it by email from the library here. Two days later, the police came around
to her apartment with a citation. They gave her a warning that if she did
it again, she would be fined -- or expelled from the country."

Some Cuban students have their own email accounts, although this is limited
mostly to graduate students. They are free to contact graduate students in
other countries, as long as it's to exchange ideas about things like pulsars
in the constellation Aquila, or mitochondrial activity in infants.  Faculty
members are also new to email. Literature professor Guillermo Rodrigues
Rivera was in the middle of planning a trip to Italy using email, a much
more efficient method than he's endured in the past.  "It's very new. Maybe
we can all have it within a few months," said Rodrigues Rivera, who taught
briefly both at Hunter College in New York and in Spain. "Cuba has always
been open to the world. We are an island in the Gulf of Mexico between the
two Americas.  Story excerpted from: Cubans Embrace Email, Warily, by Steve
Kettmann, Wired, April 30, 1999.   For full story see,
<http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/19402.html>

============================================================================
[4]	The Internet in Yugoslavia and B92 Internet Transmissions
============================================================================
Concerns have been raised that the United States government April 30
trade embargo - Executive Order 13121 - on Yugoslavia may endanger
the country's vital Internet links to the outside world and its transmission
of unbiased information. Under this embargo US companies are forbidden
from trading/exporting software and supplying services and technology 

with Yugoslavia. 

However, the concerns were abated when in a State Department Press
briefing on May 14th, spokesperson James Rubin denied that the United
States is attempting to cut off the flow of information to Serbia.  "While
the executive order proscribes commerce with the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia -- that is proscribes -- in a range of areas, information and
access to information are exempted from such sanctions. In fact, full and
open access to the Internet can only help the Serbian people know the ugly
truth about the atrocities and crimes against humanity being perpetrated in
Kosovo by the Milosevic regime" stated Rubin.

Internet communications are one of the only remaining routes to independent
information and debate for Yugoslav citizens after April 2, when B92, the
leading independent broadcaster and the only non-governmental source of
information in and from Yugoslavia was shut down, post NATO airstrikes.

Although the confiscation of the station's transmitter by the government
officials on March 24 took the station off the air, B92 has continued to
broadcast its programming via the Internet and satellite. The ban on the
station, which took effect on April 2, ceased all communications altogether,
relieved the production crew of their duties and replaced the station's
manager Sasa Mirkovic with Aleksandar Nikacevic, a member of Milosevic's
ruling Socialist Party.

Shortly after the closer of B92, a project "Help B92" was launched in
Amsterdam. The project generated a great deal of support from around the
world and reports 16,000 hits per day on its website.

Any constructive action, however, which would return B92 to the Yugoslav
airwaves, is largely impossible while the NATO bombing continues. The
infrastructure of the country is heavily damaged and such essentials as
office space and telephone lines are almost impossible to obtain.
Furthermore, the key members of the B92 production team are under constant
surveillance. All these adverse circumstances substantially retard their
efforts to advance the cause.

Since May 11 B92 could be heard again, for the first time since the
government ban, on its new website. FreeB92, which was launched by the
Amsterdam support group HelpB92, featured daily news, press reviews, radio
documentaries and live debates produced by the B92 team of journalists and
associates from around the world. Now the United States embargo may threaten
this access to information as there is suspicion that a US satellite carrier
Loral Orion may be ordered to drop a satellite uplink arrangement that
supplies bandwidth to two of Yugoslavia's major Internet service providers -
infosky.net and BEOnet.yu.  (Also visit protest site at
<http://shutdown.beonet.yu>)

Help B92 warns that the loss of this link would deal a fatal blow to freedom
of expression in Yugoslavia, as Internet communications are one of the only
remaining routes to independent information and debate for Yugoslav
citizens. Help B92 is further concerned that the all-encompassing wording
of the embargo - which appears to ban US companies and citizens from
exporting software and supplying services and technology (including

technical data) to Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro - could have further
negative repercussions for freedom of expression in Yugoslavia.

Drazen Pantic, founder of OpenNet, Serbia's first ISP and host of
independent radio B92's Web site before the Serbian Government shut it down
is quoted in Wired Magazine online. He said that the Internet has stepped
in to fill the information vacuum created by biased reporting from TV Serbia
on one side and CNN on the other. "People are exposed to bad propaganda on
both sides," he said. "The Internet is the only place there's some kind of
sanity. It's crucial. At this particular moment it's crucial." Pantic noted
that, should the Loral link be severed, Yugoslavia still has three other
connections to the rest of the world. The nation has two land lines and
another satellite link through a European carrier that is exempt from the US
trade embargo. However, in addition to the loss in bandwidth, Pantic said
it is significantly easier for the Serbian government to tap land lines than
satellite traffic. (For full article see Leander Kahney, Wired News
available online at
<http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19671.html>

Help B92 has consistantly argued that vibrant and open communication,
without frontiers, is crucial to ending the current conflict in Kosovo and
Yugoslavia and building a long and lasting peace for all people in the
region.  It calls on those committed to freedom of information and freedom
of expression to uphold the right to communicate freely on the Internet and
to protest this threat to Internet access for all the people of Yugoslavia.
HelpB92 is a support group for independent broadcast media in
Yugoslavia. Visit support web sites:
<http://www.free92.net>
To express your support and involvement:
<http://help92.xs4all.nl>
Some information provided for  this item by Maurice Wessling of XS4All
Foundation.


CONTENT REGULATION
============================================================================
[5] Australia Update On Net Censorship Bill And EFAis Campaign Against It
============================================================================
On April 21, 1999, the Australian Government Minister for Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, introduced
legislation to censor "illegal and highly offensive material" online.  The
government is now rushing the Bill through the Senate before it loses the
crucial vote of ultra-conservative Senator Brian Harradine on July 1.
GILC member, Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has been running a
campaign against this legislation. (For details on the EFA Campaign
against 1999 Internet Censorship Legislation visit
<http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/stop.html>

The Bill includes provisions to require Australian content hosts to remove
all X-rated material (explicit sexual content), and to require ISPs to block
access to such content from overseas sites if so required by the Australian
Broadcasting Authority (ABA) acting on a complaint.  For full text of bill
see: <http://www.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/billsnet/9907720.doc>


On 25th March 1999 the Senate re-established the Select Committee on
Information Technologies.  The Committee was given a reference to examine
the Government's decision to establish this censorship regulatory
framework.  The Select Committee invited written submissions from
interested persons and organizations and conducted several hearings.
The Senators encountered overwhelming opposition to the Bill from industry
and community organizations, even from conservative groups.  In fact 49 of
50 submissions received by the Committee recently were opposed to the
Bill.  On behalf of GILC members, Michael Baker submitted a letter to the
Select Committee highlighting how the filtering/blocking regime restricts
freedom of expression, violates human rights protections, is unreasonable
in light of the dynamic nature of the Internet and pointing out how the
effectiveness of the proposed regime will be minimal.  Transcripts of the
hearings of the Select Committee can be accessed at:
<http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s-it.htm>

The Committee tabled its report in the Senate on Tuesday 11th May.
As expected, the government majority report endorsed the Bill without
amendments, but there were minority reports from the non-government
members opposing the Bill.  There was also a minority report from
independent Senator Harradine, suggesting even more draconian measures.
The committee reports are available at:
<http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legislation/index.htm>

The Bill was originally set down for debate in the Senate on 13th May.
However, it has now been deferred until at least the next Senate sitting
commencing 25th May.

============================================================================
[6] South Africa Amends Child Pornography Law To Cover The Internet
============================================================================
In their last session, the South African Parliament passed a into law, an
amendment to the Film and Publications Act of 1996. The Amendment changes
the definition of child pornography and extends the definition to the
Internet. The new definition of "child pornography" includes "any image,
real or simulated, however created, depicting a person who is or who is
shown as being under the age of 18 years, engaged in sexual conduct or a
display of genitals which amounts to sexual exploitation, or participating,
or assisting another person to engage in sexual conduct, which amounts to
sexual exploitation or degradation of children".

The Amendment extends the definition of a "publication" to include any
message or communication, including a visual presentation, placed on any
distributed network, including, but not confined to, the Internet."
Accordingly, "visual presentation" is amended to include a drawing, picture,
illustration, painting, photograph or image produced through or by means of
computer software on a screen or a computer printout."

A further amendment affords broad powers of appointment, removal and
suspension from office on the Board and Review Board to the Minister. As the
Act stands, prior to the Amendment coming into law, only the President could

effect this on the advice of an advisory panel. The Minister is also now
given standing to lodge a complaint with the Board. This was previously only
to be done by an aggrieved party.

The Act has been passed, but not yet signed into law by the President.
Efforts are being coordinated to appeal to the President's office not to
sign the Act into law as it stands. Earlier this year, the President office
sent back 3 pieces of legislation before signing them into law - to be
changed to meet constitutional muster. Source: Tracy Cohen of GILC Member
the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand School
of Law.


INTERCEPTION
============================================================================
[7] FBI Founded Group ILETS Leads Initiatives To Build Comprehensive
Interception Systems
============================================================================
According to a report in Telepolis edited by Erich Moechel the FBI founded
organization, "International Law Enforcement Telecommunications Seminar",
ILETS, met in secret for 6 years, and unknown until a story was published it
led initiatives around the world to build comprehensive interception systems
into new telecommunications systems. The NSA (National Security Agency), was
behind this effort as its global surveillance operations could only benefit
if global users were systematically denied telecommunications privacy in the
information age.

US intelligence allies like Canada, the UK and Australia attended the first
ILETS meeting held by the FBI in 1993, in Quantico. Representatives from
Norway, Denmark, Spain and even Hong Kong were present. The FBI tabled a
document called "Law Enforcement Requirements for the Surveillance of
Electronic Communications", written in July 1992. In June 1993, EU ministers
met in Copenhagen and agreed to poll member states on the issues raised by
the FBI and by ILETS. After discussions in Europe later in 1993, ILETS met
in Bonn early in 1994. By now Austria, Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Spain
had joined the 19 member group. At their Bonn meeting, ILETS agreed joint
policy in a document called "International Requirements for Interception".
Attached to this policy paper was a list of "International User
Requirements" - a 4 page set of monitoring requirements called IUR 1.0
or IUR95.

ILETS wanted international standards bodies such as the ITU (International
Telecommunications Union) and ISO (International Standards Organization) to
build in tapping requirements to new system specifications. ILETS wanted
governments to agree on monitoring across international boundaries,
so that one agency could intercept communications in another country as
well.

In March 1994, the Dutch government proposed that Europe adopt IUR 1.0.
European ministers were not told that the document had been written by ILETS
as it was identified as an ENFOPOL document and eventually called ENFOPOL
90. European telecommunications operators were told to fall in line with its
requirements. In a slightly modified form, IUR 1.0 became law in the United
States in October 1994. Other European nations, and Australia, later

incorporated it in their domestic legislation. Within two years from the
first ILETS meeting, the IUR had, unacknowledged and word for word, become
the secret official policy of the EU and law around the world. Through
1995- 1997 ILETS had successes in promoting IUR with international standards
organizations and participating countries to adopt the IUR "requirements".
The European Commission, ILETS effectively turned the IUR into an
international treaty. The Member States of the European Union have been
called upon to apply those Requirements to telecommunications operators and
service providers.

Today ILETS had spawned two sub committees, one re-designing the IUR and the
second, the Standards Technical Committee (STC) working on technical
standards. ILETS and its experts met again in Dublin in 1997. In 1998,
they met in Rome, Vienna and Madrid. The IUR was not changed in 1997.  But
ILETS and its expert committees were at work, defining new requirements to
cover the Internet and satellite based systems. They also wanted stringent
new security requirements to be imposed on private telecommunications
operators. In Vienna on 3 September 1998, the revised IUR was presented to
the Police Co-operation Working Group. The Austrian Presidency proposed
that, as had happened in 1994, the new IUR be adopted verbatim as a Council
Resolution on interception "in respect of new technology". Delegates were
told that ENFOPOL 98's purpose was to "clarify the basic document (IUR 1.0)
in a manner agreed by the law enforcement agencies as expressing their
common requirement".

Afraid that the new IUR (ENFOPOL 98) at 36 pages was too explicit it was
trimmed to 14 pages and some of its more controversial provisions were put
into other papers. European police delegates met in November to consider and
agree the revised ENFOPOL 98 (rev 1). Since the ENFOPOL story was published
in Telepolis, it has been renamed ENFOPOL 19 and reduced to 6 pages with its
key provisions being hidden elsewhere. ILETS secret processes are a shame to
democracy and open discussion.

The full story about ILETS is published in Telepolis, the European on-line
magazine, at
<http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/enfo/6398/1.html>
And in German at
<http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/special/enfo/6396/1.html>
The news story is in English in the Guardian (UK) at
<http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/The_Paper/Weekly/Story/0,3605,45981,00>
html

============================================================================
[8] Russian Human Rights Group Launches Challenge To Secret Police
Surveillance Of Internet
============================================================================
Russian human rights group, Citizen's Watch in St. Petersburg, has filed
suit against secret police surveillance of Internet communications. The
Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has taken steps to
monitor all Internet traffic demanding that each service provider give the
FSB, without charge, a separate room in its headquarters with the computer
and software necessary to monitor all Internet traffic carried by that
service.


Boris Pustintsev, a longtime dissident and internationally respected
director of Citizens' Watch is leading a group of human rights activists in
this lawsuit.  According to Pustintsev, the FSB's Internet arrangement is
"illegal" and it uses illegal intimidation to achieve its goals. The
objections of service providers are met with threats from FSB officers to
cancel the provider's license. This lawsuit is filed on the basis of a
complaint by a new Internet service provider, Oleg Syrov, whom Pustintsev
called "a rebel." Based in Volgograd, Syrov recently refused to bend to the
FSB's demand for the usual accommodations, and he is now in danger of losing
his license. Pustintsev suggested that there is "a very good chance" that
Syrov, backed by Citizens' Watch attorneys, will win the case.

He said that Russian statutes and the constitution itself are clearly on the
side of honoring the privacy of personal communications such as Internet's
e-mail service.  Many Western experts think Pustintsev may succeed. American
University's Louise Shelley, a leading authority on crime in the Russian
Federation, notes that Pustintsev has an "unusual ability to build bridges,
both to other NGOs and to different sections of the government."  Pustintsev
believes that the court action may also block a technologically more
sophisticated new regulation now being developed known as SORM-2 -- System
for Ensuring Investigated Activity.

SORM-2 is based on a complex new piece of computer equipment which
incorporates both hardware and software, and is designed to instigate
real-time monitoring of every e-mail message and Web page sent or received
in Russia.  Such an arrangement would allow the FSB to play fast and loose

with the official presentation of warrants required by law.  SORM-2 will
cost service providers several thousand dollars a month or technical
upgrades required to establish 'hotlines' automatically bouncing information
directly to FSB computers. Such costs will be passed on to the consumer in
the form of higher monthly fees, which may then "decimate" the number of
users, which in turn will ultimately lead to fewer service providers.
"SORM-2 is a clear violation of the European convention on human rights, to
which Russia is a signatory," according to GILC member James Dempsey of
Washington-based NGO that seeks to defend Internet privacy, "What's more,
the European Court recognizes that laws on electronic surveillance must be
extra precise because of the great advances in technology." Dempsey is
concerned that SORM-2 will enable FSB to activate surveillance at will and
that there would be no way for the service provider to know if the
government had provided a warrant for surveillance or even if the FSB
intercepted communications at all. For more information on SORM online see
<http://www.libertarium.ru/eng/sorm/index.html>

Source: Russian FSB surveillance of Internet Challenged, by Charles
Fenyvesi, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague, Czech Republic - RFE/RL
Watchlist Vol. 1, No. 7, 25 February 1999.

===========================================================================
[9] Dutch Law Goes Beyond Enabling Wiretapping To Make It A Requirement

============================================================================
In the wake of a deregulation movement, which has been sweeping through
European telecommunications sector, some EU governments feel increasingly
threatened in their ability to use communication networks for security and
law enforcement ends. With the passage of a new Telecommunication Act,
Dutch Parliament positioned itself in the forefront of the governments being
"concerned". The Act stipulates, among other things, for cable operators and
ISPs to make their networks tappable by police and security services.

The first article of the chapter 13 of the new Dutch law reads as follows:
"Providers of public telecommunication networks and public telecommunication
services shall not make their telecommunications networks and
telecommunication services available to users unless they can be
wiretapped."

A further provision adds that the operator of the network is required to
supply and install the necessary equipment at its own expense. The Council
of Central Business Organizations -- an association of biggest Dutch
employers -- estimates the resulting cost to business to be in the hundreds
of millions of guilders.

Privacy experts have warned that the new law does not provide enough
guarantees for the adequate protection of privacy and, furthermore, opens
new venues for the potential abuses by the enforcement organs. In monopoly
times, telephone calls were routed by the phone companies "to tapping rooms
where police officers diligently transcribed tape recordings," said Maurice
Wessling, a spokesman for XS4all Foundation one of the largest Dutch ISPS
with nearly 30,000 customers. "They are now trying to force every single
operator in the communications market to set up tapping facilities at its
own expense," he said.   XS4all and other ISPs have opposed the new
provision because "we don't want to become an extension of the judicial
authorities," Wessling said.

Experts point out that the Act overlooks an important difference between the
old phone networks and the information highways. The new digital
technologies allow methods of investigation - such as massive scale scanning
for words and patterns - which were not feasible with the old analog
telephony.

The Telecommunications Act met its share of opposition, notably from the
Greens, but despite the numerous objections and sharp criticism, was passed
by 121 of the 150 members of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament. The
opposing parties, however, managed to obtain a separate resolution giving
the operators of networks an additional delay in the implementation of the
systems that make the tapping of the Internet possible. The time frame for
the delay has not been set up yet, but "it will probably be two years",
according to Henk Houtman, a spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of
Transportation, Public Works and Water, in whose jurisdiction fall the
provisions of the Act.
English version of the Dutch Telecommunications Act:
<http://www.minvenw.nl/hdtp/wetsite/act.html>

============================================================================
[10] German Government Intends To Install Strict Internet Surveillance

Infrastructure
============================================================================
Axel H. Horns of GILC member FITUG writes of a recent and urgent report
regarding the German government’s intention to install a strict Internet
surveillance infrastructure on provider's expenses.  According to the
report, the German government intends to impose on all Internet providers a

duty to install and maintain a surveillance infrastructure like the FAPSI
approach known from Russia for tapping Internet traffic on IP level. It is
said that at least on the political scale this is a concise consequence of
the ENFOPOL plans pushed by the European Union and previously existing
requirements of the German Telecommunications Act.

Similar plans had been made one year ago by the former conservative
government by Mr. Kanther and others under Helmut Kohl.  Now, after SPD and
Greens have taken office, it looks as if there will be not much less
surveillance pressure than under CDU/CSU/FDP before general elections last
year.

Report available on-line in German at
<http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/2793/1.html>

============================================================================
[11] India Announces Net Surveillance Plan
============================================================================
S.J. Singh (New Delhi, India) reports for  Data Communications, Networking
News, that the Indian government announced an Internet surveillance plan mid
April that could slow down 'Net traffic--and jack up prices.  (This story
is available online at http://www.data.com/story/DCM19990426S0001)  The plan
would require Internet service providers to connect their routers to state
security agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and
Analysis Wing (both of New Delhi) so their traffic can be monitored.
Industry sources say the surveillance will mean traffic reroutes and packet
holdups. The government also wants ISPs to install and monitor surveillance
equipment themselves. The cost of doing so could get passed on to corporate
customers in the form of a price hike--and stifle the growth of India's
fledgling Internet industry. The plan has been approved by an inter-ministry
committee on Internet security set up by the prime minister's office. It
must be ratified by the Indian parliament before going into effect.

============================================================================
[12] ISP In Singapore Apologizes To Its Subscribers After Scanning Their
Computers
============================================================================
An Internet service provider in the city-state of Singapore apologized to
its subscribers after scanning their computers without their knowledge.
Anne Lee, 21, a student filed a police complaint with the police that
someone with an account in the Home Affairs Ministry had hacked into her
computer.

It was uncovered that he computers of nearly half the Internet subscribers
in Singapore are being scanned without their knowledge to determine if the
systems are vulnerable to hacker attacks. The screening of more than 200,000
SingNet and SingTel Magix customers was disclosed.


Paul Chong, SingTel chief executive officer for multimedia said that the ISP
asked the Home Affairis Ministry's information technology security unit to
conduct the scan after the March 6 arrest of two youths who had hacked into
17 SingNet accounts. He said customers were not informed of the scan so as
not to alarm them. Also, "real hackers might lie low" if the scan was public
knowledge. Mr Chong said the scanning so far had shown some users were
vulnerable, and they would be informed.

See story, Singapore secret police computer scan scare at
<http://www.singapore-window.org/sw99/90501sc.htm>
For more on story see,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_334000/334378.st
m>

============================================================================
[13] IC2000 Report Strasbourg and Barr Amendment, United States: On
Communications Interception And ECHELON
============================================================================
The IC2000 report on communications interception and ECHELON was approved as
a working document by the Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel of
the European Parliament (STOA) at their meeting in Strasbourg on 6 May 1999.

The report is therefore available for public distribution from the European
Parliament office in Luxembourg. A web version has been prepared and will be
placed on the on the EP web site. Until that version is loaded, specialist
groups and media writers can obtain the report from the temporary web site
<http://www.gn.apc.org/duncan/stoa_cover.htm>

Key findings of the IC2000 report that comprehensive systems exist to
access, intercept and process every important modern form of communications,
with few exceptions. There is original new documentary and other evidence
about the ECHELON system and its role in the interception of communication
satellites.  In excess of 120 satellite based systems are currently in
simultaneous operation collecting intelligence information and submarines
are routinely used to access and intercept undersea communications systems.

The report shows there is wide-ranging evidence indicating that major
governments are routinely utilizing communications intelligence to provide
commercial advantage to companies and trade.

The report finds that although "word spotting" search systems to
automatically select telephone calls of intelligence interest are not
thought to be effective, speaker recognition systems in effect,
"voiceprints" have been developed and are deployed to recognize the speech
of targeted individuals making international telephone calls.

Recent diplomatic initiatives by the United States government seeking
European agreement to the "key escrow" system of cryptography masked
intelligence collection requirements, forming part of a long-term program
which has undermined and continues to undermine the communications privacy
European companies and citizens. The report distinguishes legally authorized
domestic interception and interception for clandestine intelligence purposes
and separates law enforcement and "national security" interception activity.


Report states that providing the measures called for in the 1998
Parliamentary resolution on Transatlantic relations/ECHELON measures may be
facilitated by developing an in-depth understanding of present and future
Comint capabilities. Protective measures may best be focused on defeating
hostile Comint activity by denying access or, where this is impractical or
impossible, preventing processing of message content and associated traffic
information by general use of cryptography. Other points in report:
-- In relation to the manner in which Internet browsers and other software
is deliberately weakened for use by other than US citizens, consideration
could be given to a countermeasure whereby, if systems with disabled
cryptographic systems are sold outside the United States, they should be
required to conform to an "open standard" such that third parties and other
nations may provide additional applications which restore the level of
security to at least that enjoyed by domestic US customers.
-- It should be possible to define and enforce a shared interest in
implementing measures to defeat future external Sigint activities directed
against European states, citizens and commercial activities.
Source: IPTV Ltd <iptv@cwcom.net>

In the United States Representative Bob Barr, a former United States
Attorney and CIA analyst who serves on the House Judiciary, Government
Reform, and Banking Committees, made an important amendment to domestic law
marking for the first time that the United States Congress may exercise some
oversight of ECHELON.  Barr successfully amended the Intelligence
Reauthorization Act on the House Floor today, to require U.S. intelligence
agencies to report to Congress on the legal standards justifying
surveillance activities directed at American citizens.  The Barr amendment
requires the Attorney General, and the directors of the National Security
Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency to provide a detailed report to
Congress, explaining the legal standards the intelligence community uses to
monitor the conversations, transmissions, or activities of American
citizens.

"I am extremely concerned there are not sufficient legal mechanisms in place
to protect our private information from unauthorized government
eavesdropping through such mechanisms as Project ECHELON." Barr continued,
noting recent reports that Protect ECHELON, run by the NSA in conjunction
with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom, intercepts some
two million transmissions each hour, with no judicial review or safeguards
whatsoever.  (For more information on Barr, visit his website:

http://www.house.gov/barr.)


ENCRYPTION
============================================================================
[14] US 9th Circuit Rules Encryption Regulations Unconstitutional
============================================================================
A US Appeals Court on Thursday found that strict export limits on computer
data scrambling technology violated the free speech rights of a computer
scientist and University of Illinois professor, Daniel Bernstein who wanted
to post his encryption software program on the Internet. Other academics and

numerous high-technology companies that oppose the export rules are likely
to seek a broader ruling to apply beyond Bernstein's case. The Department of
Commerce, which oversees the export limits, could also appeal the decision
to the full Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court.
Bernstein's encryption program called Snuffle was written with instructions
facilitating humans to understand "source code". In 1995 when he was a
graduate student at the University of California, Bernstein asked the State
Department for permission to put the source code and instructions for
Snuffle on the Internet. The department said the posting would violate the
export rules, International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and that
Bernstein would need a license to "export" the Paper, the Source Code, or
the Instructions. Bernstein with the support of GILC member the Electronic

Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued challenging the constitutionality of these
regulations. In 1996 President Clinton shifted licensing authority for
nonmilitary encryption commodities and technologies from the State
Department to the Commerce Department which then enacted EAR regulations to
govern the export of encryption technology, (regulations administered by the
Bureau of Export Administration ("BXA")) Bernstein subsequently amended his
complaint to add the Department of Commerce as a defendant.

The court ruled that computer source code Snuffle was protected by the First
Amendment's free speech clause. The court found that the EAR regulations
operate as a prepublication licensing scheme that burdens scientific
expression, and vests boundless discretion in government officials, and
lacks adequate procedural safeguards.

The court did not strike down the rules as applied to object code --working
computer software programs. "To the extent the government's efforts are
aimed at interdicting the flow of scientific ideas (whether expressed in
source code or otherwise), as distinguished from encryption products, these
efforts would appear to strike deep into the heartland of the First
Amendment," the court said.  Bernstein's attorney, Cindy Cohn, said the
decision meant the export rules were unconstitutional for anyone living in
the Ninth Circuit territory, which includes California. "This is precedent
for them that it is unconstitutional in the ninth circuit," Cohn said.  See
story by Aaron Pressman WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters)
For full text of 9th circuit's decision see
<http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/web/newopinions.nsf/f606ac175e010d64882566eb006
58118/febd2452a8a4d79b8825676900685b71?OpenDocument>
See also the EFF's site at http://www.eff.org

============================================================================
ABOUT THE GILC NEWS ALERT:
============================================================================
The GILC News Alert is the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty
Campaign, an international coalition of organizations working to protect and
enhance online civil liberties and human rights.

The views expressed in this newsletter are those of the editors. They do
not necessarily represent the views of all GILC member organizations.


Organizations are invited to join GILC by contacting us at gilc@gilc.org.
To alert members about threats to cyber liberties, please contact members
from your country or send a message to the general GILC address.

To submit information about upcoming events, new activist tools and news
stories, contact: GILC Coordinator, American Civil Liberties Union 125
Broad Street 17th Floor, New York, New York 10004 USA. email:
gilc-edit@aclu.org

More information about GILC members and news is available at
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ALERT freely. To subscribe to the alert, please send an mail to
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============================================================================
PUBLICATION OF THIS NEWSLETTER IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRANT FROM THE OPEN
SOCIETY INSTITUTE (OSI)
============================================================================





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