Building in Big Brother: The Cryptographic Policy Debate - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0387944419 ISBN 13: 9780387944418

Publisher: Springer, 1995

Synopsis

The announcement of the Clipper chip by the U.S. Government in April 1993 set off a frenzy of discussions about cryptography policy in the technological community. The shock waves from it ultimately included front page treatment in The New York Times, repeated questions to the Vice President, creation of several new newsgroups on the Internet, and some very productive public discussions about striking the balance between national security, law enforcement, and civil liberties. We still don't have good answers for some of the questions that have been raised. As the Global Information Infrastructure is being built, we are writing portions of the Constitution for Cyberspace. I've been fortunate to have a front row seat and to share much of this with my students. The original reading and selection of materials was made by the first cohort of students* in The George Washington University Accel­ erated Master of Science Program in Telecommunications and Com­ puters at the Ashburn, Virginia campus. They worked many long hours-reading, debating, and selecting materials for this book. In addition, Bob Patton spent a great deal of time scanning and editing the material. Nestor Torres prepared the index. And Harish Nalinak­ shan provided an enormous amount of technical and administrative assistance and kept the project on track as new developments took place in the debate and new papers and legislation reflected these. As with most readings books, some of the selections cover similar material. We have tried to hold this duplication to an acceptable level.

About this title

Review

"Lance Hoffman has compiled an extraordinarily useful and well balanced collection of materials on cryptography and its applications. This book will instantly become a definitive compendium." - P.G. Neumann, SRI International
"...a fascinating and detailed volume" - Cryptologia

Synopsis

This volume contains readings on cryptographic policy and current cryptography trends. Topics include a survey of cryptography, the new "key escrow" systems, the government solution, the debate between law enforcement views and civil liberties, and export control analysis. Detailed technological descriptions of promising new software schemes are included as well as analysis of the constitutional issues by legal scholars. Important government cost analyses also appear here. Other highlights include the text of the new US digital telephony law and the pending encryption regulation bill and a list of hundreds of cryptographic products available around the world. There is even a paper on how to commit the perfect crime electronically, using public key encryption.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387944419
• ISBN 13: 9780387944418
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576
• Editor: Hoffman Lance J.