Encryption: Who Holds The Keys?
Submitted by on January 1, 1998
Category: Technology
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Encryption:
Who Holds the Keys?
In an opinion that prophetically predated the computer age, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned, "Ways may some day be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court" (Bamford 3).
For Bandeis and the rest of 1920's society, such technology would seem almost magical. However, for some time now the government and everyone else can examine papers without removing them from "secret drawers." How is this possible? It is possible because the days of secret drawers for documents and information are long gone.
Consider this scenario: A report written by a businessperson in New York must be discussed over the phone with an associate in Tokyo, examined by the company lawyers in Washington D.C., and finally submitted by e-mail to the companies vice...