British Government Delays Encryption Proposals

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February 19, 1998 (11:24 AM EST)

British Government Delays Encryption Proposals

By Andrew Craig,

LONDON -- The British government has postponed the release of new regulations controlling encryption, the technology used to protect Internet communications from fraudsters and snoopers -- citing messages circulating on the Internet as a cause of the delay.

The long-awaited British government policy document on cryptography regulation was due to be published Thursday, but a number of factors have forced officials to postpone the publication -- including the widespread circulation on the Internet of rumors about the contents of the policy, said Nigel Hickson, head of the information-security policy group at the Department of Trade and Industry, the United Kingdom government department developing the policy.

Reports posted on Internet newsgroups on the weekend suggested the British government was planning to ban the uncontrolled use of encryption software. Some civil rights groups are concerned that governments' attempts to control the use of encryption software may jeopardize the privacy of individuals using the Internet.

The government paper, which will outline the U.K. government's official policy on security methods used in e-commerce, is "imminent" and likely to appear next week, Hickson said. The need to deal with the reports circulating on the Net over the weekend had contributed to the government's decision to delay publication of the proposals, Hickson said Thursday.

Hickson said at a conference on cryptography here in London reports circulating on the Net about his department planning a clamp-down on use of cryptography were untrue. "The government does not intend to ban encryption software, and it does not want to ban encryption," he said.

Subjects likely to be addressed in the government paper include the use of digital signatures for electronically signing documents and encryption, the method used to secure the contents of documents, Hickson said. Also being addressed is the issue of gaining the same legal recognition for electronic signatures as for handwritten signatures, and of providing legal authorities with access to the technology needed to read encrypted documents.

This last subject -- the granting of electronic wiretapping warrants -- has created huge consternation among Internet users, many of whom argue that the government has no right to intercept their communications, even to prevent crime or to protect national security.

Groups that object to the control of encryption include the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, a U.K.-based organization that aims to protect civil rights on the Internet. The group said in a statement issued Tuesday, "Prohibition or limitation of the use of encryption will not only have a terrible effect on online computer security -- a national security issue itself -- and electronic commerce, but also directly affects the right to privacy."

However, some amount of government control of cryptography is necessary, said Hickson. "Governments do have a role. But they don't need to regulate every area in sight. In two to three years' time, all the pain we have gone through to develop standards for secure electronic commerce will be worth it," he said.

Governments differ widely in their attitude to cryptography. Some -- such as Britain, France, and the United States -- argue that the need for national security and crime prevention requires that authorities have the right to control the use of cryptography and gain access to the contents of encrypted messages. But others -- including some Scandinavian countries -- argue that governments have little or no right to control the use of cryptography.