With the advent of the “Information Age”, the Computer can now be utilized by everyone for a multitude of usages as well as for commercial purposes. Today we have available an almost unbreakable Encryption process and not merely for the military as in the past, but for commercial and private usage to encrypt all our communication. The Encryption process was not always available to the public, and it’s development and distribution to the public was fought aggressively by the NSA and others in Government in early efforts to control our rights to privacy and freedom of communication.
There was once an avid discussion about the pros and cons of Encryption, unlike today, where Security has become so important that it is used as reason, unjustly I believe, to violate the publics’ privacy and by extension the publics Right to Free Speech. There is little discussion of the current surveillance our populace experiences without our permission and often without acknowledgment by the NSA, who simply ignores our rights to privacy, while conducting its surveillance above and beyond lawmakers’ attempts to control these most secretive activities. Discussion of Privacy Rights is often discouraged while justifying surveillance as benefiting the publics’ security from known and unknown enemies and as being in the public’s best interest.
As the Computer became ever more popular in the US, Security Experts and the NSA became alarmed when strong Encryption was encouraged by Mr Phil Zimmermann. A strong Nuclear War Activist in the 1980’s, Mr Zimmermann had an academic background in Physics and Computer Science. Alarmed by the Cold War, though Peace seemed imminent with the rise of Gorbachev, Mr Zimmermann left behind his activism and began to advocate for the necessity of Encryption when communication became digital. He believed that the simplicity of monitoring digital communications such as E-Mails and other Texts were similar to commercial fisherman’s use of ” drift-netting”, which no longer required fishermen to “catch one fish at a time.” The later use of Data Mining by the NSA reveals the “Drift Net” theory to be extremely viable.
In his own words, this is what Mr Zimmermann had to say about the necessity for Encryption: “Cryptography used to be an obscure science, of little relevance to everyday life. Historically, it always had a special role in military and diplomatic communications. But in the Information Age, Cryptography is about political power, and in particular, about the power relationship between government and it’s people. It is about the right to privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of political association, freedom of the press, freedom from unnecessary search and seizure, freedom to be left alone.”
Though RSA Encryption was invented in 1979, only Government, the military and big business with computers powerful enough to use it, had RSA. Mr Zimmermann thought that Encryption should be accessible to the masses; so he developed an RSA Encryption that would not overload the capacities of the personal computer. He called it PGP or Pretty Good Privacy, for short. The name was inspired by ‘Ralphs Pretty Good Groceries’ who sponsored the radio show ‘Garrison Kellor’s Prairie Home Companion.’
In 1991, Mr Zimmermann, ready to launch his Encryption Product into the public domain found himself blocked by the US Senate 1991 Crime Bill which contained the following clause: “It is the sense of Congress that providers of electronic and manufacturers of electronic communications service equipment shall ensure that communications systems permit the Government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, data, and other communications when appropriately authorized by Law.” Concerned about Cell Phones, PC’s and other devices this Bill forced companies to ensure wiretapping, and also threatened any and all use of Encryption. The Bill was eventually dropped but the battle whether to allow Encryption still waged on between Government, Mr Zimmermann and US Citizenry. Mr Zimmermann expected another Bill blocking Encryption to eventually surface, so in 1991 he released PGP, making it’s use on the Internet available to everyone.
Mr Zimmermann was right about Government’s inclination to continue blocking the use of personal Encryption; but Government’s reasoning became a threat to the well being of this brilliant inventor when he was accused of illegally exporting a weapon, or in other words, of being an Arms Dealer. PGP could not be exported via the Internet without License from the State Department. Mr Zimmermann, now a subject of a Grand Jury Investigation was pursued for 3 years by the FBI.
Was Encryption a threat to Citizenry, allowing terrorists and criminals to hide their communications; or was it a boon, protecting Citizenry from those same terrorists and criminals? For years this debate was carried on with Government taking the position that Encryption threatened Government, all the while actually attempting to maintain the status quo and control over the populace. This debate was and still is at the crossroads between the People and the Government’s policy of control; and the NSA was front and center in it. When the NSA determined it had the right and obligation to Spy on it’s own Citizenry, and to block the right to Encrypt our PC and devices, or to override them; they became Enforcers of Social Engineering through the technology used to Spy on US Citizens. Today the Legal Wiretap is unnecessary in interception of digital communications though the wiretap is still utilized. With Data Mining and Echelon Word Searches everyone’s data is made available without warrant. Echelon operates using a dictionary of keywords that immediately recognizes and records.
The argument in favor of Encryption is supported by Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by Article 1 and 4 of the US Bill of Rights. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to attacks upon their honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” This may be stated but is not enforced as Law. Amendment 1 of the Bill of Rights states: “Congress shall make no Law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Amendment 4 states: “The Right of the People to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Again, both Amendments are stated but Government Spy Agencies such as the NSA do not abide by them, and in fact, have implemented Laws to override our Declaration of Independence.
Past Histories of Presidents conducting wiretaps against their oppositions include President Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, and Obama who conducted Wiretap Operations against President Trump. The FBI is known to have wiretapped Dr Martin Luthor King to discredit him, then pass on the information on to organizations who may have originally wished to support him. In today’s Surveillance State, all Citizens are effectively “wiretapped”, monitored, and yes, targetted. To this day Echelon has made this much easier, and not only in cell phone searches, but every text on any computer or device is monitored with keywords stored. This allows the profiling of individuals and their associates. I am not sure that the NSA can not override our Encryption though it may be excellent since back doors to our devices are wide open to the NSA, as are our Hard drives if they can secure them.
What happened to Mr Phil Zimmermann? In 1993 he became the subject of a Grand Jury Investigation, because according to the FBI he had exported a munition allowing Foreign Governments, hostile Nations and Terrorists with tools to evade US Government authority. However, since he had already downloaded PGP onto the Internet it’s use spread increasingly rapidly; and at the same time was improved upon by European Nations. Since Mr Zimmermann had not directly imported his product to a Hostile Nation, but onto the Internet for random users, his case remained undefined and undecided for 3 years. His method was to give it to a friend who installed it onto an American Computer connected to the Internet; vague and confusing to US Government Lawyers.
Mr Zimmermann was supported by many organizations including MIT who published PGP in a book. His popularity ranged wide and far, and the Feds realized after 3 years that this case had spread too far into the public domain to stop PGP. It was too late. The Case was dropped by the US Attorney General in 1996. The FBI also thought that there was an excellent chance that they would lose it, and in exposing the case that it would open up into a Public debate concerning the Peoples Right to Privacy. Again, though the Silencing of Public Debate allowed Mr Zimmermann to become free from Prosecution, it also enabled Government Agencies to retain control of the Populace. PGP can still be downloaded on the Internet for free, though it is currently patented and licensed as a legitimate product. I hope Mr Zimmermann was right when he said, ” It is now possible to make Ciphers in modern Cryptography that are really, really out of the reach of all known forms of Cryptoanalysis. And, I think it’s going to stay that way.”
Since 2004, Mr Zimmermann has focused on secure telephony for the Internet. He is a Co-founder of ‘Silent Circle’ a Provider of secure communication services. In 2015 he received the US Privacy Championship Award from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and has received many more awards besides. Despite the obstacles Mr Zimmermann has faced, he has stayed true to his purpose for Social Responsibility on the Internet and Privacy for its users. He remains a huge Success Story!
FINI
Mother Goose Speaks 