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  CPSR Calls for Crypto Debate
  
  April 16, 1993									
  Washington, DC
  
                 COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS CALL FOR PUBLIC 
             DEBATE ON NEW GOVERNMENT ENCRYPTION INITIATIVE
  
  	Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
  today called for the public disclosure of technical data 
  underlying the government's newly-announced "Public Encryption 
  Management" initiative.  The new cryptography scheme was 
  announced today by the White House and the National Institute 
  for Standards and Technology (NIST), which will implement the 
  technical specifications of the plan.  A NIST spokesman 
  acknowledged that the National Security Agency (NSA), the super-
  secret military intelligence agency, had actually developed the 
  encryption technology around which the new initiative is built.
  
  	According to NIST, the technical specifications and the 
  Presidential directive establishing the plan are classified.  To 
  open the initiative to public review and debate, CPSR today 
  filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests 
  with key agencies, including NSA, NIST, the National Security 
  Council and the FBI for information relating to the encryption 
  plan.  The CPSR requests are in keeping with the spirit of the 
  Computer Security Act, which Congress passed in 1987 in order to 
  open the development of non-military computer security standards 
  to public scrutiny and to limit NSA's role in the creation of 
  such standards.
  
  	CPSR previously has questioned the role of NSA in 
  developing the so-called "digital signature standard" (DSS), a 
  communications authentication technology that NIST proposed for 
  government-wide use in 1991.  After CPSR sued NIST in a FOIA 
  lawsuit last year, the civilian agency disclosed for the first 
  time that NSA had, in fact, developed that security standard.  
  NSA is due to file papers in federal court next week justifying 
  the classification of records concerning its creation of the 
  DSS.
  
  	David Sobel, CPSR Legal Counsel, called the 
  administration's apparent commitment to the privacy of 
  electronic communications, as reflected in today's official 
  statement,  "a step in the right direction."  But he questioned 
  the propriety of NSA's role in the process and the apparent 
  secrecy that has thus far shielded the development process from 
  public scrutiny.  "At a time when we are moving towards the 
  development of a new information infrastructure, it is vital 
  that standards designed to protect personal privacy be 
  established openly and with full public participation.  It is 
  not appropriate for NSA -- an agency with a long tradition of 
  secrecy and opposition to effective civilian cryptography -- to 
  play a leading role in the development process." 
  
  	CPSR is a national public-interest alliance of computer 
  industry professionals dedicated to examining the impact of 
  technology on society.   CPSR has 21 chapters in the U.S. and 
  maintains offices in Palo Alto, California, Cambridge, 
  Massachusetts and Washington, DC.  For additional information on 
  CPSR, call (415) 322-3778 or e-mail <cpsr@csli.stanford.edu>.
  

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