Cryptography's role in securing the information society /

This exhaustive report was prepared as a response to a "Legislative Charge to the National Research Council" by the US Congress in 1993. The 16 members of the committee were drawn mainly from academia and the communications industry. Chapters include "Growing Vulnerability in the Information Age"; "Cryptography, Roles, Markets, and Infrastructure"; "Needs for Access to Encrypted Information"; "Export Controls"; "Escrowed Encryption and Related Issues"; "Other Dimensions of National Cryptography Policy"; "Policy Options for the Future"; and "Synthesis, Findings and Recommendations." The appendixes include, among others, a glossary, brief primers on cryptography and its history and on intelligence, and 200 pages of laws, regulations, and documents relevant to cryptography. The report comes to two major conclusions: "...on balance, the advantages of more widespread use of cryptography outweigh the disadvantages" and "current national policy is not adequate to support information security requirements of an information society." Among the 14 recommendations are that no law should bar the manufacture, sale, or use of any form of encryption within the US, and that export controls on cryptography should be progressively relaxed but not eliminated. A must-read book. General readers; graduate students through professionals. J. Mayer; Lebanon Valley College