Information and Communications Protection,
Abstract
This is a testimony before the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, Jan. 24, 1984. The Congressional problem is to decide how wide a blanket of protection to throw and what kinds of information warrant protection. Voice will be included as it already is, but it must be clear that the protection must exist whether the voice is represented within the communications network in analog or digital form.The point is that information protection as now addressed in the Communications Act of 1934 and information protection that will be addressed in any revision of the 1968 Wiretap Act are but two aspects of the same general problem. We must harmonize the concept of protecting information against interception across all pertinent law. The problems of protecting information in common-carrier communications networks by encrypting it is partly technical, but it is dominantly economic. For encryption the bottom line becomes: It is technically feasible--techniques do exist. It is extremely costly to do end-to-end. It would impact the common carriers enormously if mandated. It is out of reach for the ordinary individual.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA152559
Entities
People
- W. H. Ware
Organizations
- RAND Corporation