By Polly Raymond, 22 September 1998 00:30
NEWS A human rights consortium - headed by the Human Rights Watch - today urged world governments not to restrict the export of encryption software. They claim human rights could be violated without the use of coding techniques which could be made less available because of harsh export policies. The group claims that encryption is a shield for human rights activists. Coding software is used by these groups so that they can transmit information secretly without being detected by the repressive regimes they are working against. The group addressed the leaders of 30 countries gathered in Vienna late last week, urging them to relax the controls that currently prevent the export of the strongest encryption software around the world. Governments, particularly in the US, oppose policies that would make the strongest 128bit encryption available because it would make it harder to control Internet activity. The US government did announce the relaxation of export controls of 56bit encryption last week, which suggests a softening of its attitude, but campaigners claim this will not be enough. Other opponents of the restrictions on strong encryption come from the business community. Many believe that ecommerce cannot go ahead without the use of these strong coding techniques. JCP security software consultancy today claimed the US announcement is simply a "PR stunt" and won't benefit businesses because even 56bit codes are easy to crack.
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