October 5, 2001 The Honorable Judd Gregg Dear Senator Gregg: We respectfully write to express our concerns regarding reports that you may seek to include in the FY 2002 Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations conference report a "key escrow encryption" provision. During the 1990s, our associations were active in the effort to persuade the U.S. Government to adopt a policy that recognized the role of encryption in protecting essential computer networks from terrorists and criminals and in promoting electronic commerce. We also pointed out that it was in the U.S. national interest to maintain global information technology leadership in part to ensure the availability of skilled professionals to help our law enforcement efforts. The encryption issue, including the mandatory use of key escrow encryption, was the subject of numerous bills and was extensively considered and debated by Congress (the Commerce, Judiciary, and Intelligence Committees in the Senate alone) as well as the Administration. As you know, in 2000 a consensus was reached and a new policy adopted supporting the domestic use and export of American encryption products. In the aftermath of the horrendous acts of September 11th, we believe there is an even greater need to promote the use of strong encryption in order to protect against possible future terrorist cyber-attacks. We remain convinced that key escrow proposals would weaken cyber-security because of the complexity of managing the extra keys, the scale and scope of the infrastructure required, and targeting of the new key-holders. We also are highly skeptical that terrorists or criminals would use key escrow encryption given the number and quality of encryption products available abroad or from the Internet. At a minimum we believe it is essential that Congress carefully and thoroughly examine any proposed changes to the current consensus encryption policy. Thank you for considering our views. We support your efforts in the Appropriations bill to improve and advance the technological capabilities of our law enforcement agencies. We also are prepared to work with you and your staff on additional ways to combat the threat to our critical infrastructures. Sincerely, Association for Competitive
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