Clinton Favors Computer Snooping

by Declan McCullagh

6:00 p.m. 19.Jan.2000 PST

WASHINGTON -- Visions of stealthy black

helicopters landing on your lawn and

disgorging Nomex-clad troops to steal

your PGP keys aren't just for conspiracy

theorists.

The Clinton administration wants to be

able to send federal agents armed with

search warrants into homes to copy

encryption keys and implant secret back

doors onto computers.

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See also: Fidnet Eases Up on Net Plan

"When criminals like drug dealers and

terrorists use encryption to conceal their

communications, law enforcement must

be able to respond in a manner that will

not thwart an investigation or tip off a

suspect," Attorney General Janet Reno

and Deputy Defense Secretary John

Hamre wrote in a seven-page letter to

Congress.

The idea first surfaced in mid-1999, when

the Justice Department proposed

legislation that allowed them to obtain

surreptitious warrants and "postpone"

notifying the person whose property they

entered for 30 days.

The Justice Department's thinking was

that if a suspect was using

data-scrambling encryption products, the

FBI's G-men might need to enter the

suspect's home and install software to

tap into and decipher scrambled

communications.

After vocal objections from civil liberties

groups, the administration backed away

from the controversial plan. The final

draft of the Cyberspace Electronic

Security Act (CESA) submitted to

Congress had removed the secret-search

portions.

But the White House now appears to

think it doesn't need new legislation to

enter a suspect's computer.

The letter from Reno and Hamre to House

Majority Leader Dick Armey says that, in

the future, the Feds will use "general

authorities" when asking judges to

authorize so-called black bag jobs.

Commerce Secretary William Daley also

signed the letter.

They say that law enforcement should

have the ability to "search for keys"

without immediately notifying a suspect.

According to legal experts, all current

search warrants -- with the exception of

the related category of wiretaps --

require police to inform the person his

property was entered.

Privacy groups say Americans should be

alarmed.

Clinton Favors Computer Snooping

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6:00 p.m. 19.Jan.2000 PST

continued

"It sounds like they're returning to the

provision in CESA that they backed away

from," says Barry Steinhardt, associate

director of the American Civil Liberties

Union.

"The basic principle is that people who

are the subject of searches should have

notice and the opportunity to challenge

the search. This is particularly dangerous

since it will be difficult to guarantee that

evidence hasn't been tampered with,"

said Steinhardt. "What they are proposing

to do is alter computer files. It's quite a

chilling proposal."

"What they're saying is that they want to

eliminate that Fourth Amendment

requirement or limit it so much to make it

meaningless," said Dave Banisar,

co-author of the Electronic Privacy

Papers. The Fourth Amendment prohibits

the government from conducting

"unreasonable" searches and seizures.

The Clinton administration cabinet

officials wrote the letter this month in

their latest exchange with Majority

Leader Armey. Although dated 7 January,

Armey's office said they received it on

Wednesday.

In Armey's letter to Reno on 27

September, the Texas Republican wrote:

"Questions remain about the

Administration's commitment to personal

privacy.... While I understand that this

[secret search] provision has been

dropped from the most recent draft, the

fact that it was ever proposed at all

raises concerns in Congress."

In its reply, the administration wrote,

"You specifically ask whether law

enforcement has the authority to search

for keys without notifying the subject.

Although some courts have permitted the

government to conduct a search, in

analogous circumstances, without

notifying the target at the time of the

search, these same courts have held, and

we agree, that in a criminal investigation

the government must ultimately provide

meaningful notice to the target of the

search."

The letter further urges Congress to pass

CESA and defends Fidnet, a plan to

monitor online intrusions into federal

computers.

"Fidnet is entirely aimed at improving the

security of government computer

systems.... We strongly support its

development. Federal computer networks

are a favorite target of computer

hackers," they say.

Last summer reports said that the system

would monitor not just federal computers,

but other Internet traffic -- a claim that

the FBI assistant general counsel denied

as recently as during a panel discussion

last week.