In the wake of the UK government U-turn on key escrow, The Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) is to host a half-day open conference on the subject in London on March 22. Stephen de Souza, the author of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) consultation document that followed the government’s U-turn, will open the conference. A spokesperson for the IEE said it expects over 100 delegates from industry, government and business to attend and intends that the conference inform both industry and government and go some way to finding an alternative to key escrow.
Under the highly controversial key escrow system, law enforcement bodies would be able to obtain warrants allowing them access to encryption keys without the user’s knowledge. The keys would be held by licensed bodies called Trusted Third Parties (TTPs) and all users would be required to deposit keys with one of them. The government argues that the system is necessary to prevent the criminal use of encryption technology, but many argue that criminals would simply not deposit their keys with the TTPs, thus compromising the privacy of individuals without in any way helping law enforcement.
The government backed down to pressure from industry and civil rights groups on March 4 when the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair admitted to representatives of the UK’s most prominent IT and Telecommunications companies that, Key escrow is not the answer. But the government also gave industry only until April 1 to come up with a mutually satisfactory alternative, a move that angered many. If an alternative was not found, the Prime Minister warned, key escrow could make a comeback. The DTI’s consultation document Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce was issued on March 5.
