700 Club Report on the Clipper Chip on Wednesday, October 20, 1993

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Tue, 2 Nov 93 04:08:13 -0800
>From: mlshew@netcom.com (Mark Shewmaker)
>To: cypherpunks@toad.com


>On October 20, 1993, the 700 Club gave a report on the Clipper chip.
>The report was fantastic.  If you want to convince people why the
>chip is so very dangerous, and why cryptographic freedoms are so
>important, I recommend that you take a good look at this.
>
>Most people don't take to overly technical explanations of things,
>at least for the first round of explanations.  This is an excellent
>model of starter explanation for such people.
>
>I've included a transcript of the show's Clipper segments.
>
>Notice one important thing:  The report is not overtly religious in
>tone.  It does not need to be.  Encryption and privacy issues cut
>across many political and religious lines.  There is no need to
>alienate the people you are trying to convince by insulting their
>group affiliations.
>
>Notes on the transcript:  It includes only the Clipper-chip segments.
>The transcript is in three sections.  The first is from the intro to
>the show where they show clips of future segments of that days show,
>the second is the pre-commercial "Next: The Clipper chip, here on the
>700 Club", and the last is the actual report.
>
>All typos and inaccuracies are mine.  The editing I did to the report
>is: (1) remove "uh"'s (2) try to add returns in order to put the speech's
>format into some semblance of paragraph form for easier reading, and
>(3) change one case of two people talking simultaneously (at the end)
>to one person saying a few words, followed by the other saying a few words.
>
>People in the report:  Ben Kinchlow and Terry Meeuwsen are the hosts,
>who talk about the stories between themselves, and Julia Zaher is the
>reporter for the story.  She speaks both in a voiceover to the report,
>and in the report, interviewing Jerry Berman, Lynn McNulty, Lance Hoffman,
>and of course Dorothy Denning.
>
>By the way, they showed the Clipper chip itself!  Or, at least they
>showed something they claimed to be the Clipper chip.  Unfortunately,
>there was no close-up, just the chip in someone's hand, with the chip
>taking about a sixteenth of the screen.  It looked like a 28 pin PLCC
>package, with the cheaper tin plated leads.  Odd that there are so few pins.
>
>
>Here's the transcript:
>
>[The following was clipped from the intros to the that day's topics]
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               We've also got a word of caution for you because
>               very soon, if you're familiar with this song:
>               _Every_Move_You_Make,_Every_ _Step_You_Take:  The
>               federal government could be watching you!
>
>Jerry Berrman:
>                We are going to conduct our lives in electronic
>                media:  Order our movies, order our television
>                shows, decide what schools we send our children
>                to, what programs we want to, what products we
>                want to buy, what magazines we want downloaded
>                into our homes.
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               And if you're a big fan of large government, this
>               tiny computer chip could now give the government,
>               Big Brother, instant access to every detail of your
>               private life.
>
>               And we'll have details of that still to come.
>
>               Terry?
>
>Terry Meeuwsen:
>                 Right...Scary.
>
>---
>[The following is the pre-commercial message.]
>---
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               Well coming up next... The clipper computer chip.
>
>               It could be a key to invading your privacy.
>
>               We'll have that for you as the 700 club continues.
>
>---
>[The following is the actual report.]
>---
>
>Terry Meeuwsen: The famous line from the book _1984_ was
>                "Big Brother is watching you", and in the future,
>                that could prove to be true.
>
>                How would Big Brother watch you?
>
>                What method would he use?
>
>                Some privacy experts fear the means could be--
>                a computer chip.  CBN News correspondent
>                Julia Zaher brings us the story from Washington.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>            The way we communicate is changing rapidly.  It won't
>            be long before our telephone, our computer, and
>            perhaps even our television will all be one device.
>
>            Jerry Berman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
>            says we'll use that device to conduct most of our
>            daily business, our personal business; and for some of
>            us, our professional business.
>
>Jerry Berrman:
>
>                We are going to conduct our lives in electronic
>                media:  Order our movies, order our television
>                shows, decide what schools we send our children
>                to, what programs we want, what products we want
>                to buy, what magazines we want downloaded into our
>                homes.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              Berman and others in the communications and computer
>              industries welcome the innovative technology, but
>              they also worry that a new danger is threatening the
>              privacy of every American. The danger is that a
>              computerized record of nearly all of our activities
>              will be constantly accumulating.  That record could
>              show virtually every move we make, from what we buy,
>              to how much money we make, to what political causes
>              we support.
>
>              To protect our privacy, Berman and others believes,
>              more people will start doing what the government and
>              the military have done for decades:  Add scrambling
>              devices to telephones and computers, to keep
>              outsiders from tapping into important information
>              and conversations.  That process of coding and
>              decoding information is called encryption.
>
>Jerry Berrman:
>                Today we don't think of encrypting our
>                communications, but it will be done with a flick
>                of a button.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              Already, AT&T makes a scrambling device for
>              telephones.  Many businesses, especially those with
>              overseas offices, use these scrambling devices
>              routinely.
>
>              They also take advantage of the almost 300 computer
>              software programs available to code and decode
>              computer programs and electronic mail.
>
>              The Clinton administration has taken a great
>              interest in this information revolution, and the
>              government has invented its own scrambling device.
>
>Lynn McNulty:
>               This is one of the clipper chips.  The chip itself
>               costs about twenty-five dollars.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              The new invention is known as the Clipper chip.  The
>              chip is supposed to provide the strongest possible
>              method of coding phone, FAX, and computer
>              transmissions to prevent unwanted eavesdropping.
>
>              The chip is supposed to be on the market soon.
>
>              Lynn McNulty is with the National Institute of
>              Standards and Technology, known as NIST for short.
>
>              President Clinton has commissioned NIST to help make
>              the Clipper chip the highest standard for scrambling
>              information.  The White House wants to see more
>              businesses and individuals use the Clipper chip to
>              protect their communications once it's on the market.
>
>              The reportedly unbreakable scrambling code in the
>              chip would be a big plus in the fight to keep
>              information private.
>
>              But there's a catch.
>
>Lynn McNulty:
>               A good part of the technical details of the, that
>               underlie the standard will not be made public,
>               which is a departure from the way we've done
>               business in the past.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              The details of how Clipper works and the keys that
>              can break the code are all being kept secret by the
>              government.
>
>              That has nearly everyone in the computer and
>              communications industries alarmed.
>
>              Lance Hoffman is a computer science and encryption
>              coding and decoding expert.
>
>Lance Hoffman:
>                The administration wants to control the whole
>                process, and wants the government to control all
>                the keys, is what it boils down to--that's the
>                real problem.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              The government says it alone must hold the keys that
>              can break Clipper's private scrambling code.  That
>              would mean that only government agencies could
>              eavesdrop on computer and telephone transmissions.
>              Private agencies, or individuals like private
>              detectives couldn't do it.
>
>              The FBI and other law enforcement agencies say,
>              instead of getting court orders for wiretaps, in the
>              future they'll be routinely requesting codes that
>              are scrambling computers and telephones.
>
>              Dorothy Denning is one of the five outside computer
>              experts who had the chance to examine the Clipper
>              chip and try to break its code.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>              And what happened?
>
>Dorothy Denning:
>                  I failed.  I didn't break it.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>              There was no way you could break it?
>
>Dorothy Denning:
>                  There was no way I could break it.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              Denning is one of the very few people in the
>              computer science field who sees no danger in the
>              government holding the only keys that can break
>              Clipper's code.
>
>Dorothy Denning:
>                  ...And this initiative does not in any way to
>                  expand the government's authority to intercept
>                  communications.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              Denning also says Clipper's unbreakable code would
>              make it more difficult for police or the FBI to do
>              illegal wiretaps.
>
>              But Hoffman and many others disagree.  They say that
>              all of the secrecy about how clipper works, combined
>              with the government alone holding the keys to break
>              the code, would put the privacy of everyone using
>              clipper in jeopardy.
>
>              Hoffman says that while the chip is just one of many
>              scrambling devices now, the government could
>              eventually argue that everyone coding their
>              information must use clipper
>
>Lance Hoffman:
>                There's no reason they couldn't change their mind
>                at a later point and say "well we tried it
>                voluntari..." "We tried it as a voluntary measure,
>                it doesn't work, so now it's going to be
>                mandatory."
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(voiceover)
>              Privacy advocates like Jerry Berman point out the
>              government has been known to spy on citizens when it
>              believes they hold dangerous political opinions.
>
>Jerry Berrman:
>                There are good governments, there are bad
>                governments.  We've gone through abusive periods
>                where we've had intelligence agencies chasing
>                different political dissidents from the right and
>                left around.
>
>                We worry about these things.
>
>Julia Zaher:
>(reporting)
>              Computer coding and decoding standards may all seem
>              irrelevant at this point, but they'll be important
>              in the future to protect your privacy.
>
>              The government's Clipper chip is the most powerful
>              coding and decoding device developed so far.
>
>              It hasn't been decided yet if Clipper will be the one
>              national standard used to protect electronic
>              privacy, but if it is, it could also pose the
>              greatest threat, if those decoding keys, held by the
>              government, fall into the wrong hands.
>
>              Julia Zaire, CBN News, Washington.
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               And some of us would say that the wrong hands for
>               them to fall into is the government!  You know.
>
>               What your talking about here, essentially, is a
>               giant superhighway.  This is what the President,
>               Vice-President Gore is recommending--that we have
>               this super-highway, which on the surface is
>               wonderful.  It enables us all across the world to hook up and,
>               you know, exchange information and communications
>               with people, and that's a wonderful idea, and we
>               need to take full advantage of what's going on in
>               technology today:  Marvelous things.
>
>               Like one of our cameramen is hooked up to something
>               called Internet, where you can pull out files from
>               the university of Tokyo, if you will.
>
>               I mean, it's a wonderful idea.
>
>               The problem is, when the government comes in and
>               starts saying, "The only" I mean, everybody has
>               this scrambling device, but the only people who
>               can unscramble this device is the government.
>
>               But the government says that "we must have this"
>               in order to track down criminals and terrorists.
>
>               The problem is, "criminals and terrorists"
>               eventually become who the government says
>               "criminals and terrorists" are.
>
>               And it will not be long before anybody who
>               disagrees with the government, then, can become a
>               criminal, and his whole activities can be tracked
>               down.
>
>               And indeed what Orwell said about 1984 becomes a
>               reality.
>
>               The Big Brother has the capacity to watch you,
>               track you.
>
>               And by the way, interestingly enough, they do
>               have, and have developed, a small uh
>
>Terry Meeuwsen:
>                 Oh, I don't want to know this
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               tracking device that goes under
>
>Terry Meeuwsen:
>                 Under the skin?
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               under your skin.  In fact, they used some of it,
>               according to one report I read, over in the war
>               that just took place in the middle east, so they
>               could track our men by satellite.
>
>Terry Meeuwsen:
>                 Well, you know [sigh], the bottom line is that
>                 it's the same thing we've been hearing day after
>                 day after day: More government control, more
>                 government control. So, we need to hear that...
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>               The operative word here being 'control.'
>
>Terry Meeuwsen:
>                 Yeah.
>
>Ben Kinchlow:
>                Watch it.
>
>