Encryption debate centers on privacy

Ambassador Philip Verveer, deputy assistant secretary of state and US coordinator for international communications and information policy, said despite global concerns about covert cybercrime, presidential administrations should not prohibit people from encoding their Internet messages, or rendering them indecipherable to law enforcement officials.

Nations, including the United States, are grappling with the problem of how to protect online communications from threats such as censorship, spam that clogs networks and cyberterrorists. But the solutions to the problem of safeguarding the free flow of information might unfortunately turn out to be counterproductive. "Some law enforcement [officials] say the way to contend" with cyber threats is to "basically make it illegal to encrypt electronic communications -- that, I think, is a mistake," Ambassador Verveer said. "Our ability to speak freely on the Internet is in fact a function of the notion that it's not so easy to listen to us." He argued that limiting the use of encryption would endanger freedom of speech and, perhaps counterintuitively, cybersecurity. Encryption secures networks and computer assets that are constantly under attack, Ambassador Verveer noted. But Richard McNally, FBI section chief for counterterrorism and counterintelligence, said law enforcement and security officials are having difficulty investigating communications that suspects are exchanging via "some of the more advanced technologies coming aboard right now." Legislation that would make it possible to crack the coding might be necessary, he said.