Re: A New Crypto Announcement--Could be Ominous

[apteryx@super.zippo.com (Mark Heaney)]

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On Fri, 15 Nov 1996 12:49:55 -0800, you wrote:

[snip]
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>
>It sounds ominous to me. Another backroom deal, probably for some form of
>key recovery strategy, aka GAK.
[snip]

It sure looks like it, the following quotes from CNN's web page:  

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9611/15/encryption.reut/index.html

make it pretty clear that US government-approved export of strong
cryptography is part of the announcement. What else could it be except
gak? 

"If the encryption technology has won the backing of industry and the
U.S. and other governments -- which Hewlett-Packard officials say is
the case -- the development could eliminate a key obstacle to the
growth of electronic commerce via the Internet. "

and

"The technology will make it possible to export products containing
so-called "strong encryption," which have not been exportable under
national security laws dating back to the Cold War. "

Mark


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