Although the information superhighway offers many benefits to individuals and to society, it also can be exploited to further crimes such as theft and sabotage of data, embezzlement, fraud, child pornography, and defamation. One information security tool that is particularly useful against crime is encryption, the scrambling of data in such a manner that it can be unscrambled only with knowledge of a secret key. Encryption can protect against espionage, sabotage, and fraud, but it is a dual-edged sword, in that it also can enable criminal activity and interfere with foreign intelligence operations. Thus, the role of encryption on the information superhighway poses a major dilemma. This dilemma has been the topic of considerable dialog and debate ever since the Clinton Administration announced the Clipper Chip, a special-purpose encryption chip designed to meet the needs of individuals and society both for communications security and privacy protection, as well as for law enforcement and national security. The outcome of the debate is likely to have considerable implications for criminal justice. 26 references