Briefs

John Schwartz writes in New York Times about the debate about the need
for strong encryption for commerce vs the need for law enforcement to
track their messages.

"The attacks on the World Trade Center have reawakened a debate on how
strongly the public � and by extension terrorists and other
criminals � should be able to encrypt their electronic messages.

The technology of scrambling data and messages has become a crucial
element of computer security for businesses and consumers
alike. Officials of law enforcement and intelligence agencies have
long warned lawmakers that they were unable to break the strongest
encryption products, and that crimes eventually would be committed
that might otherwise have been prevented.

"We can give our codebreakers all the money in the world, but the
technology has outstripped the codebreakers," said Senator Judd Gregg,
Republican of New Hampshire, who has met with Attorney General John
Ashcroft and other officials to get encryption limits on the
legislative agenda.

...
See full article at

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/technology/25CODE.html