VICA Backs Secure E-Mail Encryption

The Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. has a message for officials who want access to encrypted messages on the Internet: Stay out of our businesses.

VICA’s executive committee and board of directors have voted to support efforts to stop government officials who want the ability to intercept and read private e-mail.

Ellen Fitzmaurice, co-chair of the VICA telecommunications committee, said recent government proposals would limit domestic software companies to less powerful encryption systems than are now available. In the meantime, she said, foreign competitors could use more sophisticated products.

“Many software companies would have to create separate products for domestic distribution and exportation, while foreign manufacturers only one product,” she said.

Government officials have said that state-of-the-art encryption systems, which are extremely difficult to decode, could give terrorists and other criminals a means of communication without fear of interception.

But VICA officials said secure encryption ensures that an online exchange can be conducted in complete confidence. That, Fitzmaurice said, is important to business.

“If I know I’m the only one in the world who knows my password,” she said, “I know no one can use my name and the receiver of a message knows it is from me. But if a third person has it, who knows?”

VICA is a business advocacy organization that studies public policies as it deals with the business community. It reports a membership of 450 corporations and affiliates in the San Fernando Valley.