The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is organizing a workshop to discuss key escrow encryption issues, including potential changes to export control procedures for products with key lengths up to 64 bits. This would benefit software manufacturers interested in creating encryption products for both domestic and international use.
The renewed dialogue aims to promote strong encryption techniques for protecting data privacy while allowing government access for lawful wiretaps. Vice President Gore indicated the government would work on developing exportable key escrow systems that don’t rely on classified algorithms and are implementable in hardware or software.
The workshops will help develop Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for key escrow encryption, including software implementations. This would provide federal agencies with wider choices among approved key escrow encryption products using either hardware or software.
NIST anticipates proposing a revision to the Escrowed Encryption Standard (EES) to cover electronic data transmitted over computer networks, including hardware-based key escrow techniques developed for use in protecting electronic data.
Keywords: Key escrow encryption, Exportable key escrow systems, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
