Trent Lott: “I agree with my colleagues. While I strongly support the passage of legislation on both encryption and on digital…”

“I agree with my colleagues. While I strongly support the passage of legislation on both encryption and on digital signatures, I am convinced that the best approach during this session is to deal with these matters in separate bills. Let me say again, that in order to pass legislation on both of these issues during this Congress, we must recognize that there are significant differences between these important and complex policy issues. Digital signature and certificate authority have appeared in various proposals in association with encryption. However, these matters need to be considered separately because they raise different questions and complications. A digital signature is a technical method for authenticating the identity of a sender or author. As its name implies, it is a digital version of a person's written signature. Encryption is a means to ensure confidentiality. It is a set of algorithms used to scramble and unscramble text in order to keep unauthorized person's from reading your computer data and messages. It is a technology that protects medical, business, and individual files from invasion. Again, encryption for confidentiality, and digital signatures for authentication and related certificate authorities, are not the same issue. Dealing with encryption and digital signatures in one piece of legislation could lead to the demise of such a weighted bill.”