Bert-Jaap Koops homepage - research - Ph.D. thesis

The Crypto Controversy

A Key Conflict in the Information Society

by Bert-Jaap Koops

The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999, 301 p., ISBN 90 411 1143 3

Reviews
'Any assessment of the careful and methodical analysis pursued by Koops must lead to the conclusion that the Crypto Controversy ... is the most erudite, panoptic and balanced examination of the issue currently available within the literature. ... [K]oops' careful and definitive examination of the totality of issues commands broad appeal and wide readership.' (Computer and Telecommunications Law Review, 5, 2000)

'[T]he author combines a wealth of information with a careful crescent of conclusions crafted appropriately to address the regulatory situation and market needs. ... As a whole, the author accomplishes the goal to explain an elaborate technical issue and its legal and policy aspects in plain language for just about any reader.' (The EDI Law Review, 7, 2000)

Table of Contents, Acknowledgements (pdf, 39 KB; also in html)

Chapter 1. Introduction (pdf, 77 KB)

Part I. Problem and context

Chapter 2. An information society needs information security (pdf, 171 KB)

Chapter 3. Cryptography, a key technology for information security (pdf, 234 KB)

Chapter 4. Cryptocriminals, a public concern (pdf, 335 KB)

Chapter 5. A survey of cryptography laws and regulations (pdf, 137 KB)

Part II. Framework and analysis

Chapter 6. Framework and set of principles (pdf, 60 KB)

Chapter 6½. Outlawing cryptography (pdf, 76 KB)

Chapter 7. LEAKing through the Public Key Infrastructure (pdf, 273 KB)

Chapter 8. Demanding decryption (pdf, 313 KB)

Chapter 9. Alternative investigation measures (pdf, 254 KB)

Chapter 10. The zero option (pdf, 29 KB)

Chapter 11. Reconciling interests (pdf, 180 KB)

Summary (pdf, 47 KB; also in html)

Bibliography, glossary, abbreviations (pdf, 169 KB; Bibliography also in html)

Samenvatting (pdf, 53 KB; also in html)

Fokke Sukke have a crypto controversy Cryptography is essential for information security and electronic commerce, yet it can also be abused by criminals to thwart police wiretaps and computer searches. How should governments address this conflict of interests? Will they require people to deposit crypto keys with a 'trusted' agent? Will governments outlaw cryptography that does not provide for law-enforcement access? Can the police require suspects to hand over keys, thus infringing the privilege against self-incrimination? Or should law enforcement forget about wiretapping and computer searches altogether?

Bert-Jaap Koops, who studied mathematics and literature, did research at the law faculty of Tilburg University and the mathematics department of Eindhoven University of Technology. In this book, the author of the Crypto Law Survey discusses possible ways to address the crypto controversy, analyzes the arguments pro and con domestic regulation of cryptography, and puts these into perspective.

The first part of the book outlines the information-security need of the information society, the applications of cryptography, the specific problems cryptography poses to law enforcement, and the various laws and regulations around the world that control cryptography. The second part analyzes in-depth the possible solutions to the crypto problems for law-enforcement: outlawing cryptography, mandating law-enforcement access to keys, commanding suspects to decrypt, use other ways of information-gathering - or do nothing. The pros and cons of these solutions are traded off to conclude what is the best option to deal with the problem.

The Crypto Controversy pays attention to the reasoning of both privacy activists and law-enforcement agencies, to the particulars of technology as well as of law, to 'solutions' offered both by cryptographers and by governments. Koops proposes a method to balance the conflicting interests and applies this to the Dutch situation, explaining both technical and legal issues for anyone interested in the subject.

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