FUCK!!!!!!;-)

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

It seems to be worse than we thought?

Apple and *Sun*?

Doesn't *Whit Diffie* work for Sun?

Curioser and curioser...

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

--- begin forwarded text


From: sombody...
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 15:41:38 -0400
To: rah@shipwright.com
Subject: FUCK!!!!!!;-)

NEW YORK AND PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 1996--Eleven major information
technology vendors and user organizations today announced the formation of an
alliance to develop an exportable, worldwide  approach to strong encryption.
 The goal of the alliance is to enable companies to conduct secure
international electronic commerce.

The alliance was formed in response to demand from customers who  are
conducting more and more of their business processes  electronically.
 Internationally available strong encryption would  enable these firms to
send sensitive information securely over the  Internet and other
international networks.

The companies forming the alliance will achieve this by  developing modern,
high-level cryptographic "key-recovery"  solutions that meet the requirements
of business and could allow easing of  restrictions of cryptographic
import/export around the world.

Members of the alliance are Apple Computer, Inc., Atalla, Digital Equipment
Corporation, Groupe Bull, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, NCR Corp., RSA, Sun
Microsystems, Inc., Trusted Information Systems and  UPS.  The alliance is
also open to other companies with an interest  in key recovery.

"Keys" are strings of computer code that lock and unlock data.   Key recovery
is an approach that permits the recovery of lost or  damaged keys without the
need to store or "escrow"  them with a third party.  This approach could also
meet the needs of law enforcement to act under the authority of a court order
without risking the  confidentiality of business data.

Modern, high-level cryptography works to ensure four critical  elements of
security -- Confidentiality: prevents against  unauthorized parties from
seeing information; Integrity: determines  that information has not been
changed during transit; Authentication: verifies the identity of the user and
the user's eligibility to  access and use information; Non-Repudiation:
provides evidence that a transaction took place, for example, that a customer
actually placed  an order.

"Apple recognizes and supports the need for key recovery, and we  are pleased
to be a part of the alliance," said Ellen Hancock, chief  technology officer
and executive vice president of R&D for Apple  Computer, Inc.  "We believe
that this alliance will help industry  lead in developing solutions for
secure transactions while prompting  the evolution of the Internet as a
business environment."

"Securing commerce over the Internet using strong encryption  technologies
will require a common set of standards and approaches to fundamental security
issues such as key recovery and key management," said Robert Gargus, Atalla
president and general manager.  "Once  these standards are accepted and
globally deployed, public networks  such as the Internet will provide a
secure, multi-national commercial trading environment for worldwide
electronic commerce."

"The alliance has struck a balance between government and  business needs,"
said CommerceNet Chairman Marty Tenenbaum.   "Allowing encryption to this
degree opens the door to the  proliferation of electronic commerce."

"Strong encryption is a necessary element in delivering secure  network
business solutions to our customers worldwide.  Key recovery  is a mechanism
that addresses government policy concerns about the  export of strong
encryption while at the same time meeting growing  commercial needs," said
Sam Fuller, vice president and chief  scientist for Digital Equipment
Corporation.  "Digital sees this  alliance as an effective means to develop
open and interoperable key  recovery standards."

"Electronic Commerce is planned to be $1T by the year 2010  according to
experts.  The capability to have secured transactions is a prerequisite for
the market," said Alain Couder, senior executive  vice president of Groupe
Bull.  "Groupe Bull had been actively  involved in the search for a solution
to provide a balance between  the legitimate need for users to have privacy,
for corporations to  protect their trade secrets and relationships and for
governments to  maintain national security.  Bull has the ambition to be a
leading  provider of this capability with key encryption technology, smart
 cards and its Internet products and services."

"HP is pleased to be a founding member of the alliance," said  Richard W.
 Sevcik, HP vice-president and general manager of the  Systems Technology
Group.  "Exportable strong encryption is a key  enabler for international
electronic commerce and provides businesses with the ability to perform
secure transactions and other  communications regardless of geography.  Key
recovery is one of  several technologies that will be important."

"Key recovery will truly open the Internet for serious business," said Irving
Wladawsky-Berger, general manager, IBM Internet Division. "Once businesses
are confident that their electronic transactions are safe and they control
the recovery of keys, a flood of new market  opportunities will open.  The
Internet is rapidly shifting from a  place to browse for information to an
environment for conducting real business."

"Export controls are a fact of life," said Jim Bidzos, president  of RSA Data
Security.  "The key recovery alliance's approach will  allow companies to use
cryptography with differing levels of security in an interoperable way.  When
the alliance implements this  technology it will give the user a new level of
flexibility that did  not exist before.  In an imperfect world this technique
will at least allow you to take advantage of what governments around the
world will allow."

"We're delighted to be part of the alliance because we believe  the adoption
of a worldwide standard for key recovery is essential to solving current
network security problems," said Stephen T. Walker,  president and CEO of
TIS.  "User-controlled key recovery systems  including our own products have
already demonstrated that user  privacy concerns and exportability
requirements can be successfully  addressed.  But there must be worldwide
interoperability.  And it is  our hope that the alliance will be able to
accomplish that."

"The work of the alliance could have a profound impact on  conducting
international business over the Internet," said Joe Pyne,  UPS vice president
of marketing.  "UPS is committed to improving the  movement of both
information and packages in secure and time  sensitive manners.  The alliance
allows us to combine our expertise,  energies and financial strength to
quickly develop standards that  will open the door for rapid development of
products and services."

CONTACT:

Apple Computer, Inc.

Maureen O'Connell

408-862-6689

or

Atalla

Gary Lefkowitz

408-435-5715

or

Digital Equipment Corp.

Patrick Ward

508-493-9441

or

Groupe Bull

Jean-Jacques Roulmann

33-1-39-66-3970

or

Hewlett-Packard

Kimberly Daniel

408-447-4587

or

IBM

Mike Corrado

914-766-1162

or

NCR

Bob Farkus

513-445-2078

or

RSA Data Communications

Ginny Kirkley

415-595-8782

or

Sun Microsystems Inc.

Ray Nasser

415-786-4395

or

Trusted Information Systems

Homayoon Tajalli

301-854-6889

or

UPS

Pat Stephen

201-828-6103

KEYWORD: NEW YORK

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS COMED



BW0153  OCT 02,1996

--- end forwarded text



-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender."
                -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard,
                       for Bart Simpson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/