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The Clipper Chip was a controversial encryption device promoted by the US government in 1993. It used keys to encrypt calls and had a backdoor for law enforcement agencies. Critics argued it was a threat to privacy and security, and the program was abandoned in 1996 after being included in only one phone model.
The Clipper Chip was a controversial encryption device promoted by the United States government for use in the telecommunications industry. It used small pieces of information known as keys to encrypt calls, protecting them from eavesdropping and eavesdropping. The technology was designed with a special “backdoor” that would allow law enforcement agencies to break encryption with a warrant or other legal authorization. A diverse group of opponents criticized the proposal on privacy and security grounds, and the system was abandoned within a few years of its announcement.
Approved by the Clinton administration in 1993, the Clipper Chip has been touted as a way for individuals, businesses and government agencies to protect telephone calls from eavesdropping. It consisted of a small microchip called a cryptoprocessor that could be built into phones and encrypt voice communications using “keys,” information that controls the output of mathematical encryption algorithms. Without the correct key, other devices or someone intercepting the call would only hear an encrypted signal.
The encryption algorithm used in the Clipper Chip was designed by the National Security Agency (NSA), a highly classified arm of the US government that engages in electronic espionage and surveillance. The NSA algorithm, known as “Skipjack,” was similar to technologies developed in the private sector with one notable exception: Skipjack was designed to provide federal law enforcement and counterterrorism agents with a “back door” that could be used to Access your encrypted calls with the Chip Clipper. For every Clipper-compatible device sold, a key capable of breaking that device’s encryption would be split in half and held “in escrow” by the government, with one part held by the Treasury Department’s Automated Systems Division and the other in hands of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. With a warrant or other legal authorization, agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) could recover keys and monitor suspects’ encrypted calls.
This key escrow concept has generated opposition from right-wing talk show hosts, civil liberties groups, business leaders, and e-privacy advocates. Many critics argued that the inclusion of a backdoor was a threat to both privacy and security, while others accused the government of trying to stifle private encryption technologies by purchasing tens of thousands of Clipper-enabled devices while maintaining the strong cryptographic software export ban . Government officials have countered that, without such a program, terrorists and criminal organizations would thwart legal eavesdropping efforts with impenetrable encryption.
In 1996, the US government abandoned the Clipper Chip proposal. During the three-year debate and controversy surrounding the program, the chip had been included in only one model of phone manufactured by AT&T. The effectiveness and security of the proposed encryption device was called into question when an AT&T researcher demonstrated that a sophisticated criminal could exploit vulnerabilities in the system and make it impossible for law enforcement agencies to intercept communications. Although the Clipper Chip itself has been abandoned, the debate about the relationship between encryption and law enforcement has continued.
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