From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 07:08:14 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Bob - FYI -- not sure if this was already posted ?
Message-ID: <v0311070bb07c1fb8b75d@[139.167.130.246]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




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Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 18:24:41 -0500
From: David Kaufman <davidk@air.com>
Reply-To: davidk@air.com
Organization: Allied International Resources
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: rah@shipwright.com
Subject: Bob - FYI -- not sure if this was already posted ?

12:51 PM ET 10/28/97

FBI chief calls for computer crime crackdown

            ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - FBI director Louis Freeh said
Tuesday that criminals were moving increasingly into cyberspace
and without new laws ``drug dealers, arms dealers,  terrorists
and spies will have immunity like no other''.
            Freeh told the International Association of Chiefs of Police
that software manufacturers should be required by law to include
a feature that allows police to descramble encrypted
communications.
            ``It could take a $30 million supercomputer a year to figure
out the simplest encrypted message without this feature,'' Freeh
said. ``And that message might be 'we have the victim and will
kill him in an hour'.''
            ``We're not opposed to encrypting. Encrypting is very
important when transacting business but encrypting makes it very
hard to enforce court orders for surveillance.''
            Freeh said he supported a cyber surveillance law with these
features which passed out of the House Intelligence Committee.
That bill has the support of the FBI, Justice Department, Drug
Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement
agencies but does not have White House backing.
            ``Our own administration has not gotten behind this
initiative. There are some very powerful industry forces
opposing this,'' Freeh said.
            The ability of criminals to communicate with one another
with computers is changing the face of law enforcement, Freeh
said.
            ``All the boxes of evidence we used to bring back have been
replaced by hard drives and discs. When we graduate our agents
we give them in addition to a gun and a badge a laptop
computer.''
         ^REUTERS@

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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/
Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>