National Cryptography Policy

The U.S. federal government faces a fundamental tension between two important policy objectives: 1) fostering the development and widespread use of cost-effective information security, and 2) controlling the proliferation of security technologies that can impair U.S. intelligence agencies and law-enforcement capabilities. This tension runs throughout the government activities as a developer, user, and regulator of security technologies. This tension is manifested in concerns over the proliferation of cryptography that could impair U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement, and in the resulting struggle to control cryptography through use of federal standards and export controls.