13 January 1999
From: "Bert-Jaap Koops" <E.J.Koops@kub.nl>
To: cryptography@c2.net, ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk, cypherpunks@toad.com,
krypto@rhein-main.de
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 15:14:29 MET
Subject: Press release - The Crypto Controversy: no problem
Press release - please spread widely
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The Crypto Controversy: no problem
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Tilburg, the Netherlands, 13 January 1999
The Dutch government should do nothing about the problem that
cryptography poses to law enforcement. All available options have more
negative than positive consequences. This is the conclusion of
Bert-Jaap Koops in his recently published Ph.D. thesis "The Crypto
Controversy". Although encoding programs potentially leave
law-enforcement powerless to wiretap communications and to conduct
computer searches, there is not a real solution to retrieve the keys
to decipher encoded data.
Koops, author of the Crypto Law Survey website, conducted a four-year
research at Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of
Technology. He analyzed the conflict of interests that cryptography
poses to society. On the one hand, encryption is crucial for
information security and for protecting privacy, but on the other
hand, it enables criminals to escape the scrutiny of law enforcement.
Governments are trying hard to address this conflict of interests,
but their proposals for regulation have been controversial. The
policy debate is polarized, with privacy activists and
law-enforcement agencies fiercely opposing each other's point of
view.
To address this crypto controversy, Koops discusses four possible
solutions: building-in Law-Enforcement Access to Keys (LEAK systems),
demanding suspects to decrypt, using alternative investigation
measures, and doing nothing. The first option is flawed, because
secure LEAK systems are not yet available, and criminals will anyway
not use crypto which they know to contain a backdoor for the police.
The second option, demanding suspects to decrypt, yields only very
limited opportunities, because of the privilege against
self-incrimination. Alternative investigation measures, such as using
directional microphones and intercepting radiation from computer
screens, can provide some leeway for the police if wiretaps lose
their efficacy, but they are serious infringements of people's
privacy.
Koops concludes that, for the time being, the "zero option"
is preferable: governments should decide upon a policy to do nothing
about the crypto problem. To meet developments in crime and
cryptography, this policy should be reviewed periodically. "Perhaps
the government will slowly have to adapt to the idea that wiretapping
is not a panacea for the information need of the police."
As Koops suggests: "if there is no solution, there is no problem
either." Rather than continue to worry over the crypto controversy,
the government should concentrate its energy and resources on other
pressing social issues which it can address.
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Publication details
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Bert-Jaap Koops, The Crypto Controversy. A Key Conflict in the
Information Society. The Hague / London / Boston, Kluwer Law
International, 1999, 301 pages, ISBN 90 411 1143 3.
A summary and ordering information are available at
http://cwis.kub.nl/~frw/people/koops/thesis/thesis.htm
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Curriculum vitae
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Bert-Jaap Koops (1967) studied mathematics and
literature at Groningen University. After working for Amnesty
International for two years, he started a Ph.D. research at Tilburg
University and Eindhoven University of Technology at the faculties of
law, mathematics and technology management. Since October 1998, he is
a senior research fellow at the Centre for Law, Public Administration
and Informatization of Tilburg University.
Koops is editor of the Dutch reference book Recht &
informatietechnologie. He co-edited a book on Emerging Electronic
Highways and has published widely on crypto regulation, computer
crime, and Trusted Third Parties. He maintains an extensive worldwide
survey of crypto laws on the Internet.
-----------------------------
Bert-Jaap Koops <e.j.koops@kub.nl>
Tilburg University
13 January 1999