Resumen
Cryptography is not a panacea for attaining security and privacy, its just one technique among many. The cryptographic and system-security communities must work harder to overcome some of the deficiencies in the computer-communication infrastructure - hopefully with greater encouragement from the U.S. law-enforcement community. But trapdoor access is not a panacea for law enforcement or fighting terrorism, providing at best peepholes into certain kinds of information. Such access would provide substantial administrative problems for law enforcement and everyone else. The need to address security as a systemic problem is a familiar thread in this column. The risks lie not only in the cryptographic algorithms and key lengths but in how cryptography is encapsulated. Such issues should be faced with key escrow, key recovery, and the third parties themselves. Similar problems arise for those seeking to increase system and network security and for those believing the inherent risks are controllable.