McCain-Kerrey: S. 909

 * Compels Americans to Use Government-Approved Key Recovery Systems
 * Makes Key Recovery a Condition Of Participation in E-Commerce
 * Allows Government Carte Blanche Access to Sensitive Encryption Keys
   Without a Court Order
 * Codifies a low 56-bit Key Length Limit on Encryption Exports
 * Creates Broad New Criminal Penalties for the Use of Encryption

• Text of original bill
• Four amendments offered by Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)
• List of co-sponsors
• Does your Senator support McCain-Kerrey?

• CDT Policy Post 3.09 - Key Recovery gets Mixed Reviews at Senate Committee Hearing
• CDT Policy Post 3.08 - Senate Committee Approves Key-Recovery Crypto Bill [June 19, 1997]
• CDT Policy Post 3.07 - Senate Bill Would Compel Domestic Key Recovery [June 17, 1997]
• Impact of McCain-Kerrey on Constitutional Privacy Rights [Updated August 5, 1997]
• CDT Analysis of McCain-Kerrey [June 17, 1997]

• June 16, 1997 McCain-Kerrey bill introduced in Commerce Committee
• June 19, 1997 Industry groups and privacy advocates sent a letter to Senator McCain and members of the Senate Commerce Committee opposing the McCain-Kerrey bill.
• June 19, 1997 The Senate Commerce Committee approved the McCain-Kerrey "Secure Public Networks Act" (S. 909) - a bill which would for the first time impose domestic restrictions on the ability of American citizens to use encryption technologies to protect their privacy and security inside the United States.

  The bill was approved over the objections of Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), principal sponsor of the Promotion of Commerce Online in the Digital Era Act (Pro-CODE), and 8 other senators.

  The legislation, which was also co-sponsored by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC), would force the U.S. domestic market for encryption to adopt untested and vulnerable "key-recovery" encryption systems. While providing only token relief from current export controls, the bill would create strong incentives to force the entire domestic market towards untested, costly and potentially insecure third-party access to sensitive encryption keys.

  Though presented as a compromise between Administration policy and encryption reform bills now pending in Congress, the McCain-Kerrey bill in fact mirrors draft legislation proposed earlier by the Clinton Administration.

  CDT believes that the bill represents a significant threat to privacy and security in the Information Age.

• Wednesday July 9, 1997 The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to explore government access to encrypted communications through key recovery. The hearing, called to consider both the general question of key recovery encryption and the McCain-Kerrey "Secure Public Networks Act" (S. 909), highlighted the controversy surrounding efforts to reform US encryption policy.
  

  Witnesses testifying at the hearing, billed as "Encryption, Key Recovery, and Privacy Protection in the Information Age," included:
  

  Senator Robert J. Kerrey (D-NE)

  Louis Freeh, FBI Director

  William Crowell, NSA Deputy Director

  Ken Dam, Chair of National Research Council Encryption Policy Study

  Mike Mackay, Vice President, Novell

  Peter Neumann, Principal Scientist, SRI

  Ray Ozzie, President Iris Associates

  
  

  Several Senators for the first time came out in the open to acknowledge their support of mandatory key recovery inside the United States even beyond the compelled use of key recovery contained in the McCain-Kerrey bill. At the same time, other Senators raised serious concerns about the feasibility and vulnerability of key recovery systems of the kind favored by the Clinton Administration.

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