FC: Tech didn't create, can't resolve privacy probs --Signal mag

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

*********

[I am testing a new beta of Eudora, version 4.3.0.29, so formatting may be 
screwy. Acronym alert: AFCEA is the Armed Forces Communications and 
Electronics Association, a professional association representing US 
sigint/electronics/infosys/etc. military folks founded half a century ago. 
AFCEA publishes Signal magazine, which is influential inside that 
community. Alan Campen is respected by US government folks in the 
"cyberwar" world, though he seems rather milquetoast here. --Declan]

*********

http://www.us.net/signal/CurrentIssue/CurrentIssue.html

January 2000
©SIGNAL Magazine 2000
Technology Did Not Create and Cannot Resolve Privacy Dilemma

An absence of trust and common perceptions of privacy will pace security 
reforms.
By Col. Alan D. Campen, USAF (Ret.)

    The exploding use of encryption in cyberspace has spawned a dilemma 
for policy makers. They must
    strive to balance citizens' rights to security and privacy with the 
needs of law enforcement and
    intelligence to police what a senior defense official terms a "lawless 
frontier," and others call the "World
    Wild Web."

    A polarized and politicized debate over the control and sale of strong 
encryption has focused too much
    on arcane technology itself, rather than seeking consensus on what 
services and functions most need
    protecting. So, blending the disparate views of private and public 
security seems no closer today than
    when cryptography first crept out of the black world into the public 
consciousness. This arguably took
    place when then head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 
William Webster chose an AFCEA
    luncheon to launch a campaign for stronger federal controls over the 
use and export of cryptography.

    Information security is an international issue, involving diverse 
cultures that do not hold a common view
    of personal privacy in cyberspace or of how it should be secured. All 
parties summon technology,
    regulation or laws to resolve what is fundamentally a social problem: 
a lack of trust--trust in one another,
    trust in rapidly changing technology, and trust in government.

    Cryptography imposes new burdens on law enforcement and intelligence 
agencies, as all manner of
    miscreants are masking their deeds in cipher land. Former U.S. 
Representative Jack Brooks (D-TX)
    likened the conundrum confronting law officials to the sheriff who 
bemoaned that criminals had traded
    their horses for motor cars.

    But, then as now, technology is neutral. Its dual edge serves both 
those who use and those who abuse
    information. Cryptography can provide limited and ephemeral solutions 
to some security risks, but only if
    the "settlers," in the Wild West sense, agree on the desired end state.

    [...snip... -DBM]

    Congress has done little other than further polarize the cryptography 
issue by serving up contrasting bills
    that are intolerable to the opposition and unacceptable or patently 
ineffective in an international arena.

    [...snip... -DBM]

    The "right" security balance--if such is a practicable goal--may not 
come from laws or top-down policies
    from government, but instead from a global infrastructure that just 
grew, with governments struggling
    simply to keep their van in sight. Citing the lack of technical and 
legal silver bullets, Paul Saffo writes in
    Business Week that "the way through this swamp is with a lot of small, 
comparatively weak solutions
    acting in concert."

    Col. Alan D. Campen, USAF (Ret.), a contributing editor to SIGNAL, is 
a member of the adjunct
    faculty at the National Defense University School of Information 
Warfare and Strategy and contributing
    co-editor to the AFCEA book Cyberwar 2.0: Myths, Mysteries and Reality.

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