From: Johannes Kepler To: All Subject: PGP Investigation by NSA Date: 09/17/93 Government Acts to Supress Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----- BEGIN FACTUAL BACKGROUNDER ----------------------------------------- On Tuesday, Sep. 14, 1993, Leonard Mikus, president of ViaCrypt in Phoenix, Arizona, was served a Subpoena to testify before the Grand Jury to produce documents. The subpoena was issued by the U.S. District Court of Northern California, by Assistant U.S. Attorney William P. Keane in San Jose, as part of an investigation from the San Jose office of U.S. Customs. Additionally, Austin Code Works of Austin, Texas was served the subpeona which read: "You are commanded to bring with you any and all correspondence, contracts, payments, and records, including those stored as computer data, relating to the international distribution of the commercial product Moby Crypto and any other commercial product related to PGP and RSA Source Code..." Philip Zimmermann, author of Pretty Good Privacy (which uses the RSA algorithm) says in his e-mail dated 9/17/93, that he is "the principal target of the investigation." Zimmermann has been working closely with ViaCrypt to develop a commercial version of PGP, and has himself been served the same subpoena to produce information related to his program. Zimmermann says, "This case raises some serious public policy questions regarding First Amendment rights to publish, rights to privacy as affected by widespread availability of cryptographic technology, the equivalance of electronic publication with paper publication, the availability of lawful domestic cryptographic technology in the face of export controls, and certain other Constitutional rights." A legal defense fund has been set up for Zimmermann and is being handled by his attorney Phil Dubois at 303.444.3885 in Boulder, Colorado. An anonymously posted e-mail to the cypherpunk mailing list, dated 9/17/93, reacted to the U.S. Customs subpoena's and investigation with this: "With the recent turn of events concerning the subpoenas for Austin Code Works, Grady Ward, and Phil Zimmermann, I would suggest that [cypherpunks] do our parts to disseminate PGP and all other forms of crypto FAR AND WIDE, as quickly as possible. The battle has been joined!" Grady Ward is president of Austin Code Works, and author of Moby Crypto, a cryptographic program that incorporates freeware PGP into its design. Ward faxed a letter to Charlotte Knepper of the National Security Agency (NSA) on 9/14/93, outlining his outrage at the suppression of his program and stated "proscribing the publication of material because it is conveyed on a magnetic media rather than paper pulp is an NSA initiative that is both destructive to our basic freedom of expression and to the trade renaissance that ... the Clinton Administration [is] trying to foster." --- END OF FACTUAL BACKGROUNDER ---------------------------------------- WARNING! The following are my opinions ONLY based upon the above factual information and my involvement with this issue! :) What does this mean? The battle to use cryptographic tools for the enhancement of personal privacy through electronic e-mail mediums has finally begun in earnest. The NSA, U.S. Treasury Department, and U.S. Customs have jointly started a new, aggressive campaign to prevent the spread of cryptographic ideas, tools, programs, source code and documentation. Austin Code Works received their subpoena at night to prevent them from selling copies of Moby Crypto the *very next day!* The U.S. Customs is involved because the case can then be made that exportation of the RSA algorithm (which is currently illegal) is a danger to national security. The real reason the government is cracking down on PGP, is that it is an extremely effective cryptographic tool (employing a 512/1024-bit key which requires months or years to crack under even the most advantageous conditions where the secret key has been compromised--not bad if there's only a few radicals out there, devastating if thousands of people use it.) Also popular interfaces like PGPShell have made PGP easier to use, which has resulted in widespread implementation of PGP. The more people that use PGP, the harder it is for agencies like the NSA to keep up with the encrypted e-mail traffic. (There's nothing worse than communication going on without the government's knowledge or approval!) It is not yet against the law to possess source code to, or the executables for PGP, but the battle for possession of PGP is just now beginning. If you value your ability to speak to others through e-mail in private, then NOW is the time to get a copy of PGP. For information about PGP, send a blank mail message to: through the Internet. If you have FTP access you may obtain a copy by anonymous logon at: soda.berkeley.edu ghost.di.unimi.it nic.funet.fi ota.ox.ca.uk van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca .end