From: John McCormac <jmcc@hackwatch.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 11:14:38 -0700 (PDT)
To: Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@stud.uni-muenchen.de>
Subject: Re: IE Frees Crypto
In-Reply-To: <199807021125.HAA06437@camel7.mindspring.com>
Message-ID: <359BCD11.30DEF3CD@hackwatch.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Mok-Kong Shen wrote:
> 
> John Young wrote:
> >
> > Source: http://go2.guardian.co.uk/paper.html

The Guardian article is probably not as good as the real thing :-) and
so I've quoted excerpts from it here. The full document is on:
http://www.irlgov.ie/tec/html/signat.htm 

(John, it would be better to quote the actual document on your page as
the Guardian article is only a limited view.) 


Ira Magaziner was in negotiation with the Irish government over this and
some meetings were held in secret. I am still trying to get all the
facts on this one. 

<quote>
 Users shall have the right to access strong and secure encryption to
ensure the confidentiality, security and reliability of stored data and
electronic communications.

 Users shall have the right to choose any cryptographic method.

 The production, import and use of encryption technologies in Ireland
shall not be subject to any regulatory controls other than obligations
relating to lawful access.

 The export of cryptographic products is to continue to be regulated in
accordance with the relevant EU Regulations and Decisions and Irish
national legislation which reflect the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export
Controls for Dual-Use Goods and Technologies and Conventional Arms.
</quote>

This one is worrying as the gobshites in the EC are capable of really
banjaxing the situation. Since EU Directives are law when they are
published, they could well cause a bit of legal conflict. Under EU
legislation, at least one of my books could be banned.

<quote>
 In order to enable lawful access to encrypted data, legislation will
be enacted to oblige users of encryption products to release, in
response to a lawful authorisation, either plaintext which verifiably
relates to the encrypted data in question or the keys or algorithms
necessary to retrieve the plaintext. Appropriate sanctions will be put
in place in respect of failure to comply.
</quote>

This seems to be carefully considered in that the user could be asked to
prove the encrypted document contains the encrypted form of the
plaintext. But the most important thing is that a search warrant would
be required to force the user to give up the plaintext or the key.
Surprisingly it could be interpreted so that the user only has to prove
the link rather than giving up his or her key.

<quote>
2. Electronic Signatures

 Legislation will be enacted to facilitate the use of electronic
signatures through the establishment of a framework for the
authorisation of bodies to act as nationally accredited Certification
Authorities.
</quote>

This is unusual - could this mean that each Irish citizen would have
their own Cert/sig? Everyone who works in Ireland or avails of any state
services seems to have an RSI number (just like the SS number in the
US). They introduced mag strip cards for unemployment benefits a few
years ago.

I am currently working on an article about this proposal on crypto and
will post it when I finish it.

Regards...jmcc
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John McCormac            * Hack Watch News
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