Furor rising over PC wiretap plan
By Maria Seminerio, ZDNN
August 20, 1999 2:06 PM PT
Civil libertarians, trade groups outraged by DOJ proposal that would
'booby-trap' PCs. But will Congress go 'ballistic'? A U.S. Department of Justice proposal to make it easier for police to
break into homes and access computers is drawing a furious reaction from civil
libertarians and high-tech industry trade groups.
The draft legislation, for which the DOJ hopes to find a sponsor in Congress, is
dubbed the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act. The law would make it easier for law
enforcement officials to obtain from judges a now-rarely-used authorization to break into
a suspect's home and plant a hidden listening device.
But in this case, the computer equivalent of the "listening device" is
the authorization for investigators to disable data-scrambling encryption programs on PCs.
(In order to actually copy data from the computer, police would still need a separate
warrant from a judge.)
"(The proposal) strikes at the heart of the Bill of Rights," said
David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy
Information Center.
Noting that judges in all federal and state courts combined only issued 50
warrants for so-called "surreptitious physical entries" last year, Sobel said
extending such authorization to cases involving computer files "would make police
break-ins far more common than they are now."
'Booby-trap your computer'
The proposal would "basically allow investigators to booby-trap your
computer ahead of time" by disabling encryption, he said.
The proposal was most likely spurred by the frustration investigators have
experienced when finding encrypted data on computers used by suspected drug dealers and
other criminals, he added.
DOJ officials did not respond to requests for interviews Friday. But in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
Acting Asst. Attorney General Jon Jennings said the new law would aid investigators when
information needs to be deciphered "in a timely manner."
"While under existing law, law enforcement is provided with different means
to collect evidence of illegal activity, these means are rendered wholly insufficient when
encryption is used," wrote Jennings in the letter.
"In the context of law enforcement operations, stopping a terrorist attack
or seeking to recover a kidnapped child, time is of the essence and may mean the
difference between success and catastrophic failure.
"While existing means of obtaining evidence would remain applicable in a
fully-encrypted world, the failure to provide law enforcement with the necessary ability
to obtain the plain-text version of the evidence makes existing authorities useless,"
he wrote.
EPIC: Congress will go 'ballistic'
Noting that the proposal would need to find a sponsor in Congress and then be
passed into law before it could take effect, EPIC's Sobel said it could encounter
resistance by lawmakers.
"I think people in Congress are going to go ballistic over this,
particularly since it's coming right on the heels of the FIDNET" controversy, he
said. FIDNET -- the controversial proposal to monitor government and some private networks
for hacking activity -- came to light earlier this summer and remains in limbo.
Barry Steinhardt, president of the American Civil
Liberties Union, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has often misused its
powers in the past, and could do so again under the DOJ proposal.
"There's every reason to believe they're not just going to look at the Mob
using the powers sought under the proposal," Steinhardt said. "They'll use this
power to interfere with protected speech."
Also condemning the plan were the Computer and Communications Industry
Association, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Americans for Computer Privacy.
Clinton admin: Big brother?
The plan is "an unprecedented attempt by the Clinton administration to
impose 'big brother' monitoring powers over American citizens," ACP officials said in
a statement. "The fact is that current laws provide law enforcement broad powers to
obtain information."
"This is another attempt by law enforcement to do an end-run (around
encryption)," said Ed Black, president of the CCIA. "It offers a real temptation
for investigators to overreach and overextend" the current limits on searches and
seizures, he said.
"Anybody's vulnerable," Black added. "(This) resembles something
the KGB would propose."
HEAR THE STORY IN REAL AUDIO
Feds Seek Power to Search Computers
The Justice Department wants the authority to secretly tap into the personal
computers of crime suspects. The department wants Congress to pass legislation that would
allow investigators to search for passwords and to override encryption programs. The
Justice Department believes that scrambled computer files are increasingly masking
criminal activity, such as drug trafficking, terrorism, white-collar crime and the
distribution of child pornography. Privacy advocates object to the plan known as the
Cyberspace Electronic Security Act, saying it would be 
another government intrusion into
Americans' homes. Listen as NPR's Peter Overby reports for All Things Considered.
Related Links:
Remember the
last PC-monitoring attempt?
DOJ wants to bug PCs
ZDNet
Guide to Security
Security
and the Web: Time to panic?
Senate
panel favors stronger encryption
DOJ
can't spend on surveillance net
