X-POP3-Rcpt: declan@relay.pathfinder.com X-Sender: declan@mail.pathfinder.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 16:40:51 -0400 To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh Subject: FC: Germany's interior minister calls for crypto-crackdown Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu Reply-To: declan@well.com X-FC-URL: Fight-Censorship is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/ Germany's interior minister today called for a crypto-crackdown. Lutz Donnerhacke's summary (attached below) reports that Manfred Kanther said: * The Internet is not only the home of the devil, but we will fight the devil. * The police urges, that only licenced algorithms are in use. We have to provide the police perfect investigation enviroments. current administration to ease to work of the police. * It is possible to merge security and controlling interests: Key Escrow or GAK (Gouvermental Accessed Keys). This aims not to allow new observation possibilities, but to keep existing ones. * But it's not our goal to cut the freedom rights of the users to speak and operate. * Cooperation of the ISPs is the base to technically filter the net from illegal and harmful contents. On this base providerindependent classification of content can be prepared by us. -Declan ******************* BONN (April 28, 1997 12:32 p.m. EDT) - A German cabinet minister called on Monday for increased efforts to fight crime on the Internet and demanded that cyber-sheriffs have keys to unlock coded messages. Interior Minister Manfred Kanther told a conference in Bonn the government did not want to stifle development of the Internet through excessive regulation, particularly in the area of encryption, which protects data from unwanted access. "But we will not be able to avoid a certain involvement of the state," he told a conference in Bonn. "The technical and organizational competence of agencies charged with fighting computer crime must be strengthened." Reminiscent of debates over surveillance of mobile phone networks, Kanther said while it was necessary to provide secure communications to improve acceptance of the Internet this could not interrupt routine police work. In one of the clearest statements yet on how Bonn wants to control encryption technology, Kanther proposed allowing only technologies whose manufacturers agree to provide "keys" for police to allow surveillance activities. The opposition Social Democrats rejected Kanther's proposal, saying it would create "a surveillance state of Orwellian proportions." "This is a deep blow for domestic information technology companies," said SPD parliamentary deputy Joerg Tauss. Secure encryption is necessary to guarantee safe electronic transactions, but it can also be used to cloak illicit activity or to hide illegal images and writings on computer networks. Germany currently has several police teams that surf the Internet in search of criminal activity ranging from illegal pornography and child prostitution rings to extremist writings. Officials say the Internet is used increasingly by organized crime and law enforcement officials fear they are falling behind. "The criminals are hiding in the anonymity of the networks, wiping their electronic tracks." Kanther said. "Investigating agencies and police are faced with completely new challenges." Speaking at a conference of the Federal Agency for Information Technology Security, Kanther added fuel to a raging debate over control of the Internet and who should be held liable crimes committed over computer networks. Prosecutors in Munich earlier this month indicted the head of the German subsidiary of U.S. on-line service CompuServe Corp. on allegations of aiding in the trafficking of pornography, neo-Nazi writings and games that glorify violence. The indictment followed a year-long investigation into whether CompuServe allowed members to access computers on the Internet that contained pornography and neo-Nazi writings. Kanther welcomed efforts by on-line services and Internet service providers to voluntarily take efforts to prevent misuse of their networks and sought to counter what he said was an impression that the Internet was largely a den of crime. "The artificial world is in the end a lot like the real world. Where there is light there is shadow. We will confront the dark sides and fight them decisively," he said. By WILLIAM BOSTON, Reuter *********** From: lutz@taranis.iks-jena.de (Lutz Donnerhacke) Newsgroups: de.comp.security,sci.crypt,talk.politics.crypto Subject: German crypto ban announced (abstract) Followup-To: de.comp.security Date: 28 Apr 1997 10:09:03 GMT [Followup-To: de.comp.secuity, feed on reply] http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/security/cryptoban/kanther.rede.en.html [3]Whole text in German. If anyone likes to translate the speach or made a better abstract, please [4]mail me. Kanther announces German Crypto Ban Manfred Kanther (Federal ministry of Interior, Germany) spoke at the opening of the 5. INformation Technology Security Congress in Bonn about "On the secure way into information society" Abstract * Information technology is a central part of efforts in German politics, economity and society. * There are a lot of international fears about risks of such a information society. * Modern communication is misused by criminals. They exploid insecure data transaction and hide themself in the anonymity of the networks. Electronic tracing is very hard, the place of criminal action is not definit, so the police has to master new difficulties. * In order to reduce the advances of the criminals, the roots of those advances should be removed before they can come into effect. So it would be not necessary to cry for new laws. * There are examples of such technical preventions. The BSI [visible part of an organisation like the NSA, but much smaller ;-) -LD] has to develop such technical solutions to stop criminals in the networks. There will be a market. * Cryptography is the key technology to gain security and trust. * Cryptography is necessary to connect companies and the gouverment into the networks. * Cryptography can not be allowed to stop legal wiretrapping or render police efforts useless. It can not be acceptable, that intelligence laws are senseless. * It is possible to merge security and controlling interests: Key Escrow or GAK (Gouvermental Accessed Keys). This aims not to allow new observation possibilities, but to keep existing ones. * The police urges, that only licenced algorithms are in use. We have to provide the police perfect investigation enviroments. * Steganographie is useless, because it's too hard to use. A lot of people overestimate the possibilities of steganography. Steganography is unable to manage ordinary phone calls. If steganography is used nevertheless, the investigator can obtain informations from the use itself. It is a major goal of the current administration to ease to work of the police. * The Internet is not only the home of the devil, but we will fight the devil. * But it's not our goal to cut the freedom rights of the users to speak and operate. * It's fine, that the bussiness is going to selfregulate [censor itself? -LD] the content in the network. This prevents law reagulation of this subject. * Cooperation of the ISPs is the base to technically filter the net from illegal and harmful contents. On this base providerindependent classification of content can be prepared by us. * We have to train our personal to fight computer base crime better. * The law backround is currently prepared by the discussion of the IDuK law containing the Digital Signature law. * This law was prepared in a large cooperation of experts of economity and science. It's supported by the bussiness. * The adminstration is going to work together only with the bussiness in this subject. * The BSI is the melting pot of those developments. * It's word causes acceptance in gouvermental applications, bussiness solutions and public thinking. * The BSI works together with the German Federal Bank and banking organisations to prepeare and certify new paying mechanisms. * The publications of the BSI are widly accepted as secuirty standards. * I'm pround of the BSI, it will master the furture problems. References 3. http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/security/cryptoban/kanther.rede.html 4. mailto:lutz@iks-jena.de ------------------------- Declan McCullagh Time Inc. The Netly News Network Washington Correspondent http://netlynews.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is public. To join fight-censorship-announce, send "subscribe fight-censorship-announce" to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu. 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