Encryption proposals revealed

Taken from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_84000/84332.stm

Trying to balance the concerns of law enforcement
agencies and civil liberties groups, the British
Government has unveiled long-awaited proposals on
how it wants to tackle encrypted information passed
over the Internet.

The Department of Trade and Industry announced on
Monday that legislation would be introduced allowing
the authorities "to gain legal access, under a properly
authorised warrant, and on a case by case basis, to
encryption keys or other information protecting the
secrecy of stored or transmitted information."

The Minister for Small Firms, Trade and Industry,
Barbara Roche, said in a written reply to a
parliamentary question: "It is not ... in the interests of
business or the public for criminals and terrorists to be
able to exploit these new technologies to disguise or
conceal their activities."

She added: "The purpose of these new powers will be
to maintain the effectiveness of the existing legislation
designed to protect the public from crime and
terrorism."

The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, alarmed civil liberties
groups in January when he hosted a conference of
European Union ministers in Birmingham who
appeared to agree that the police and security services
should have wide-ranging powers to fight cyber crime
by intercepting e-mail and reading confidential
documents without being monitored by the courts.

But the proposed legislation suggests a judicial warrant
would be needed in each individual case. It follows
Labour's pre-election manifesto statement that this
should be "in the same way that a warrant is required to
search someone's home."

The trade minister's statement did suggest a U-turn on
another manifesto commitment, which said: "Attempts
to control the use of encryption technology are wrong in
principle, unworkable in practice, and damaging to the
long-term economic value of the information networks."

Ms Roche said that to enable secure electronic
commerce, bodies would be licensed to provide or
facilitate encryption services. This would be a voluntary
scheme and would ensure that minimum standards of
quality and service were met, she said.

The minister was referring to the Trusted Third Parties
(TTPs) scheme put forward by the previous government
whereby users of encryption would lodge the keys to
their code with the TTPs. Critics of the plan had feared
this would be made compulsory. The proposals suggest
otherwise, but still go against the Labour manifesto.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             otherwise, but still go against the Labour manifesto.