Crypto Users Can't See FBI.gov

[Paul Howell]

At http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,37425,00.html

Crypto Users Can't See FBI.gov 
by Chris Oakes 

2:35 p.m. Jul. 6, 2000 PDT 
Is the FBI blocking privacy-equipped browsers from its
website? 

The question goes unanswered a week after users of
a commercial privacy service found themselves unable
to access the Federal Bureau of Investigation's fbi.gov
site. 

"You can't access fbi.gov if you have a Freedom 'nym'
running," confirmed Dov Smith, spokesman for
Zero-Knowledge Systems, which runs Freedom.net,
the privacy service affected by the problem. 

Zero-Knowledge began an investigation after postings
by users of Freedom mentioned the problem last week
on the "cypherpunks" mailing list, a popular discussion
forum for privacy and encryption enthusiasts. 

The company and the FBI have yet to find a likely
cause, which could be political or technical in nature. 

Zero-Knowledge's Freedom service uses encryption
and other security technology to secure users'
identities as they traverse the Internet. 

Freedom subscribers create multiple digital identities
called pseudonyms -- or "nyms" -- each associated
with different Internet activities. The nyms use a
network of proxy servers, strong encryption keys, and
digital signatures to prevent identifying data from
flowing out of users' computers. 

The FBI has publicly stated its concerns about the
use of strong encryption on the Internet mainly
because of the obstacles scrambled data poses to law
enforcement. 

That's why eyebrows went up when Freedom users
typed fbi.gov only to find the FBI's website just
doesn't load. Meanwhile, users who disabled their
"nyms" were able to access the site as usual. 

Was there an ulterior motive in the FBI's cyberspace
no-show? The mailing list participants have drawn a
connection between the problem and FBI Director
Louis Freeh's past statements about encryption's
danger to crime-fighting efforts, according to Smith,
whose company monitors the mailing list. 

But Zero-Knowledge isn't ready to read political
meaning into the incident, which Freedom users said is
the first time they have been blocked from a website. 

"It did raise eyebrows and I think it's probably a very
sexy story for a lot of people because of the positions
the FBI has taken on strong crypto -- and the fact
that we are a company that deploys very strong
cryptography," Smith said. "Hopefully we'll get to the
bottom of that very soon." 

Just as it told Zero-Knowledge representatives, the
FBI said it has no answers as to the cause of the
problem but in general it would never seek to block
access to its site. 

"I can't speak to whether or not there's a problem,
but I can tell you on our part there's no intention to
deny anybody," said FBI spokesman Rex Tomb. "That
I'm aware of, there's no attempt to block anybody
from looking at the FBI's Web page and there's no
incentive for us to do it," said Tomb. 

He added that the FBI site has never blocked any kind
of Internet traffic. "The more people that can see
that page the more we like it. That's the whole reason
we have it." 

"I'm going out on a limb here -- could it be that this
software makes it difficult to interface with firewall or
other considerations?" Smith said. 

He said Zero Knowledge is hoping to collaborate with
FBI engineers to explore all possible causes from an
intentional "blockage" to a so-far unprecedented
technical problem with Freedom software.