Eager to help defend the United States' position as a global power in encryption products, members of the House Commerce Committee are canvassing a list of heavy hitters in government and industry for their opinions of US crypto-export policy.
A series of letters from Internet Caucus co-founder Representative Rick White (R-Washington) and the Commerce Committee chairman, Representative Tom Bliley (R-Virginia), acknowledges the Clinton administration's concern about "legitimate law enforcement and investigative needs and the needs to preserve national security." But White and Bliley also argue that such concerns cannot be addressed by restrictions on the export of strong security codes.
"It is commonly accepted that current encryption export restrictions imposed by the administration will delay the proliferation of advanced encryption products, but that it is inevitable that advanced encryption products will be developed worldwide," the letters say.
Letter recipients include Kenneth Minihan, director of the National Security Agency; Commerce Secretary William Daley; FBI Director Louis Freeh; David Aaron, US special envoy for cryptology; Robert Holleyman of the Business Software Association; Ken Wasch of the Software Publishers Association; and Kathy Kincaid of IBM. Typical of the questions the letters pose is one addressed to Minihan: "How significant is your agency's consultative role with the Department of Commerce within the current export restrictions? ... [Is] it even necessary?"
The Clinton administration transferred regulatory responsibility to the Commerce Department at the end of last year. Since the transfer, encryption export standards have been loosened from 40- to 56-bit encryption. In one case, Open Market Inc. received permission to export Internet-commerce software it has developed that contains 128-bit encryption. Business leaders are nearly unanimous in maintaining that the 56-bit restriction strictly limits the US software industry's ability to compete in the global market, and they have found a sympathetic ear in Congress.
"The Internet has grown into a vehicle for interstate and foreign electronic commerce," said White. "But if we are going to realize the full potential of the Internet, we need to ensure it is not stifled by federal regulations and ill-conceived public policies.... It's time to take a close look at the export restrictions that are in place."
"There are already companies springing up overseas specifically to manufacture products with the type of encryption we're not allowed to export," said Jim Bidzos, chief executive officer of RSA Data Security, in an earlier interview about the US software industry's role as a leader in setting global software standards. On Friday C2Net Software Inc. and UK Web Ltd. announced the release of SafePassage Web Proxy, which was developed entirely outside of the United States and claims to provide full-strength, non-escrowed cryptography for users of any standard Web browser.
The Commerce Committee hopes to get written responses to the letters, as well as written analyses of three bills aimed at altering the administration's export policy, by 25 April.
