Encryption - Governmental Control: Security Vs. Freedom?

GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL: SECURITY VS. FREEDOM?

The ability to break codes and intercept secret information was a crucial element of security work for many countries, including the United States. For that reason, many governments were wary of allowing their domestic encryption products to be exported and proliferate throughout the world, where they conceivably could fall into enemy hands and make international eavesdropping especially cumbersome.

According to Federal Communications Law Journal, the Clinton administration, which was the first to deal with encryption policy in the age of e-commerce, initially ruffled the feathers of privacy advocates and industry proponents by proposing the "Clipper Chip" initiative in 1993. Developed by the National Security Administration, the Clipper Chip used an algorithm called "Skipjack," a classified code that would have allowed the government to access classified information. The proposal failed, as did three subsequent Clipper Chip movements. All included measures to tightly restrict the export of encryption technologies.

By the 2000s, protection of encryption technology in the name of national security was falling out of favor among governments and especially businesses. This especially was the case in the United States. For one thing, technology had advanced to the point where encryption systems were common throughout the world, and governmental impediments to the export of encryption was thus seen as a fruitless policy. However, more important to many business leaders was that encryption had become a big business, one that played a key role in global e-commerce. Thus, in order to remain competitive in this burgeoning world market, businesses needed to be free to market their technologies across borders.

In 2000, the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) released a study entitled "Cryptography and Liberty 2000: An International Survey of Encryption Policy." The study reported that governments around the world were slowly coming to perceive the commercial value of encryption technology and its importance in the growth of many industries, particularly in the broad field of e-commerce.

While many governments, such as those of Pakistan, China, and Russia, maintained some form of control over encryption use and exportation, the trend by the 2000s was certainly blowing in the other direction toward greater openness and proliferation of strong encryption schemes. In this movement, governments may have to adjust their security strategies to compensate for the inevitable loss of some information in the interests of enjoying the benefits of and staying competitive in e-commerce.