From: Anonymous User <nobody@c2.org>
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 08:00:30 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: No Subject
Message-ID: <199409281458.HAA04516@zero.c2.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hopefully, this will better moderated than the last clipper event at MIT,
where a single disruptive audience member wouldn't keep his !@#$ mouth
shut, and augered an NSA technical presentation into a forum for him to
preach his political gospel.


                        COMMUNICATIONS FORUM

GOVERNMENT WIRETAPPING, ENCRYPTION AND THE CLIPPER CHIP DEBATE

Thursday, September 29, 1994 4PM
MIT MEDIA LAB
Bartos Theatre, E15-070, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

Dorothy Denning, Dept. of Computer Science, Georgetown University
Robert Holleyman, Business Software Alliance
James Kallstrom, Special Operations Division, FBI
Ronald Rivest, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
Moderator: Stephen Kent, Chief Scientist for Security Technology, BBN

The federal government says it is necessary to update America's wiretapping
capabilities to keep up with technological advances -- and that not doing
so could mean losing the battle against organized crime and terrorism.
Last year the Clinton Administration proposed the "Clipper Chip," a data
encryption plan which would put the "keys" for decoding phone, fax and
computer communications in the hands of the government.  The
much-publicized plan has met with strong opposition from privacy groups,
business executives and computer professionals, and has also been
challenged on technical grounds.  At the center of the debate is the
question of how to balance national and personal security concerns, on the
one hand, with the right to privacy and the need to maintain the
international competitiveness of businesses that use encoded
communications, on the other.  Recently, government officials have
expressed a willingness to compromise on some features of the Clipper Chip,
but the debate continues over what kind of encryption system should be
implemented and what role industry should play in the development and use
of a new system.  This forum brings together representatives of the FBI,
the computer software industry, and academic computer scientists who will
share their views and concerns about the Clipper Chip and alternative
systems of data encryption.