“The most important impact of technology on communications security is that it draws better and better traffic into vulnerable channels.” Digital Telephony, if passed, would grant law-enforcement access not only to phone conversations, but a whole range of personal information previously stored in hard copy but ripe for plucking in the digital age. And if law enforcement can get at it, so can others – either government agents over-stepping their legal authority, or crooks.
Predictor: Levy, Steven
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Steven Levy writes about encryption issues: ”While defending Digital Telephony on ABC’s Nightline, FBI chief William Sessions claimed that the law would merely allow law enforcement to keep pace with technology. But as Whit Diffie [the originator of public-key cryptography in the 1970s] notes, ‘The most important impact of technology on communications security is that it draws better and better traffic into vulnerable channels.’ In other words, Digital Telephony, if passed, would grant law-enforcement access not only to phone conversations, but a whole range of personal information previously stored in hard copy but ripe for plucking in the digital age. And if law enforcement can get at it, so can others – either government agents over-stepping their legal authority, or crooks.”
Biography:Steven Levy was a 1990s technology journalist. He wrote on the topic for decades for such publications as Newsweek and Wired. He is the author of the books “Hackers,” “Artificial Life” and “Crypto.” (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: May 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Crypto Rebels
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/crypto.rebels_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney