Crypto Regulation in Europe - Some Key Issues and Trends

This paper gives an overview of current and proposed crypto regulations in Europe, with attention to developments in the US, Japan and the OECD. It presents some key trends in the regulation of cryptography: growing awareness of criminal crypto use and of the dilemma of a crypto policy, and increasingly strong lobbies for key recovery and for privacy. The paper discusses several issues that any crypto policy will have to take into account: the aim of the policy, international cooperation, and key recovery issues (trust, liability, constitutional rights, who accesses keys). Finally, the paper presents a framework for states to decide upon a crypto policy.