1. In general, escrow means to hold something aside in case of eventualities. Analogy: For example, one company provide software that another company sells imbedded in their hardware. The second company (the OEM) is scared that the first company may go out of business, so requests that the first company put the source code for the software in escrow. Should the first company go out of business, the second company would still be able to sell their product. Key point: Law enforcement is constantly pushing for key escrow where a third party holds back-door keys to all encryption products. Law enforcement would then be able to obtain these keys with a court order into order to decrypt messages or eavesdrop on communications. They first propose a variant of the two-person rule in order to prevent abuse of the system. From Hacking-Lexicon