Key-Escrow Encryption in Europe

April 1996 / International Features / Europe: Who Holds the Keys? / Key-Escrow Encryption in Europe

Rainer Mauth
A pan-European key-escrow system is unlikely to appear soon. The reason is simple: Prosecution and telecommunications laws in European countries vary widely. However, a pla n that includes local trusted third parties (TTPs) could solve some of the problems.
"European countries will not cede their legal sovereignty to transnational TTPs," says Dr. Ansgar Heuser of the German information security agency BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik). "A transnational key-escrow scheme therefore should consider having national TTPs provide keys for their citizens."
In contrast to the Clipper chip scheme, Heuser's modification of the D-H algorithm doesn't use fixed keys for each participant and offers free use of encryption algorithms. The local TTP of person A can seize that person's outbound messages and also has access to person B's replies to those messages without asking B's TTP for a key. Person A would be free to change the key for sending messages anytime (a signature of the local TTP), but the key for decrypting B's replies can't be changed without the consent of both TTPs. The only objection against the plan, Heuser says, is that it doesn't include cases where a citizen of one country travels to or lives in another country.
Rainer Mauth is a BYTE senior news editor based in Frankfurt. He can be contacted on the Internet or BIX at rmauth@bix.com .

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