60 Minutes CBS News 555 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019 Dear 60 Minutes, Your February 26 story on computer security missed the most important point -- the United States Government requires network providers to keep their systems easily exploited. Encryption would enable companies to thwart unwanted intrusion by disguising the content of messages, making the messages virtually unreadable to anyone who does not possess the decryption key. Computer intruders would not be able to steal passwords or credit card information because they would not be able to read the data. Furthermore, encryption helps authenticate users by making it difficult to forge information used to identify messages. But network security poses an interesting threat to U.S. law enforcement. If the system is secure, how can the National Security Agency intercept the messages of evil terrorists? Rather than "ramp up" their own law enforcement techniques, the NSA and others have made a requirement that the networks "dumb down" to their level. Such antiquated Cold War thinking has resulted in the State Department refusing to remove encryption from the U.S. Munitions List, -- where it currently sits right alongside flamethrowers and B-1 bombers -- severely restricting its legal use on international networks like the Internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just filed a lawsuit challenging the the current Arms Export Control Law on First Amendment grounds. (The press release is included.) Hopefully, this will open the door for technological solutions to protecting security that are currently available but remain illegal. Sincerely, Shari Steele Director of Legal Services