Explain why the U.S. government wants to restrict the export of strong encryption systems. And why would other countries be against it?

The U.S. government wants to restrict the export of strong encryption systems because of the belief that it hinders their ability to hunt down terrorists and criminals. This push to impose further restrictions on the development, dissemination, and use of encryption technologies is based on the assumption that regulation can prevent terrorists from acquiring strong encryption. It also assumes that regulating encryption will not harm the information security of U.S. businesses and individuals. 

Other countries are against this because they believe that further regulations will not prevent terrorists from getting strong encryption. They believe that because the development and use of strong encryption have now spread worldwide and have been built into hundreds of millions of systems, including all e-commerce servers, and almost every Web browsing program that it would be impossible to regulate. Hundreds of encryption programs are available on the Internet. Approximately three dozen countries produce commercial encryption products. Even if the United States completely banned civilian encryption, it would still be available to terrorists from dozens of other international Web sites.

 Even if all countries banned civilian encryption, it would still be available via underground Internet sites; and even if all of those were closed down, terrorists could create their own encryption software. Some politicians and government officials have called for a ban on products that don’t include “back doors” for government surveillance. This would give law enforcement keys to unlock any encrypted messages. Though the keys would be securely maintained, privacy rights groups and business managers, as well as other governments, are concerned that the keys could be compromised, and that the U.S. government might abuse its power.

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