“FBI Director Louis Freeh remains determined to require
cryptography users to register their keys so that the Bureau can
crack their secret files whenever a judge can be persuaded that
information contained therein might facilitate a prosecution.
There were fifty-three cases last year which slipped through the
FBI’s hands because their (apparently overrated) technicians were
unable to crack the cryptography with which the incriminating files
were encoded, Freeh explained in testimony to the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday.”
“Freeh and his boss, US Attorney General Janet Reno, have
repeatedly called for strict crypto regulations along the lines
preferred by the British and Communist Chinese governments. It
remains to be seen whether the US Congress, which has the last word
in this debate, will come around to their way of thinking.”