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Computer companies call for a review of the federal government's plan to support the Clipper chip system for encrypting telephone and computer communications. The Clinton administration presented its strategy in Apr 1993 to employ an integrated circuit, the Clipper, in telephone encryption devices that scrambles sound and data for privacy; law-enforcement agencies would be able to unscramble the encryption using a special code. The computer industry protests the government's strategy, claiming such government decoding capabilities put off prospective buyers, especially overseas customers. The National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are the principle proponents of the chip. These agencies argue that the decoding capabilities are essential to prevent criminal activity.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is hoping to force the telephone industry to provide the agency with the software necessary to intercept and decipher digital communications. A revised proposal to Congress asserts that the FBI's ability to wiretap communications will be severely limited without access to digital communications, resulting in a number of preventable crimes and lost prosecutions. Tapping a digital communications system requires sophisticated software and technology to isolate the signal and then translate the computer language signal into human language. The cost of modifying the technology would be passed on to the consumer, although the revised proposal eliminates the language that refers to consumer cost. The FBI also opposes unbreakable encryption schemes that companies and individuals use to protect highly classified data, claiming that indecipherable code limits the agency's ability to detect criminal activity. Both positions have stiff opposition.

Some cellular telephone companies now offer to protect the privacy of their customers by scrambling calls. The problem arises because cellular systems transmit signals via radio waves, and it is easy to eavesdrop on unscrambled conversations carried on such systems. Therefore, cellular companies now are offering hardware options that scramble signals. According to Paul Nathanielsz, an executive with Bell Cellular Inc in Toronto, Canada, privacy services are likely to become a niche application in the industry. Bell Cellular offers a privacy service for $89.95 a month.

****QUESTIONS EXIST ON ISRAELI BREAK-IN OF US SYSTEMS 09/10/91 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1991 AUG 10 (NB) -- Amidst reports of the intrusion by an Israeli national into United […]

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