Scandinavian Goverments provide PGP to postal customers...

[Hugh Daniel <hugh@ecotone.toad.com>]

  FYI:
>From: jsp@betz.biostr.washington.edu
>Sent: 	Friday, January 24, 1997 2:31 PM
>Subject: 	Meanwhile, back in the Free World...
>
>
>Encrypted Email For Finns, Swedes, Danes
>    by Sami Kuusela
>
>    4:43 pm PST 23 Jan 97 - While keeping a watchful eye on the emerging
>    American encryption policy, Scandinavian countries are embarking
>    on a joint project to implement the first international email security
>    service.
>
>    Nordic Post Security Service (NPSS) - involving Finland, Norway,
>    Sweden, and Denmark - hopes to provide secure email, and
>    officials say that soon every Nordic citizen can walk into the
>    nearest post office and sign up for it.
>
>    But no matter the success of the secure email system, the NPSS
>    project is a clear sign that, unlike the United States, Northern
>    Europe is moving forward with exporting encryption technology
>    across national barriers.
>
>    "Finnish policy has not been to start with regulations and fear of
>    Net issues," says Anu Lamberg, the head of the Information
>    Network Unit in the Finnish Ministry of Transport and
>    Communications. "The American discussion on this matter has
>    been funny to watch, but I hope nobody in Europe or Finland starts
>    to question the very basics of democracy."
>
>    Based on PGP, with no "third-party" key holder, the Nordic system
>    uses unbreakable RSA-algorithm encryption with a 1024-bit key.
>
>    However, some hardware is required. Because the key is on a
>    smartcard, users must have smartcard readers installed on their
>    computers, which aren't yet widely available. But Pdr Andler of
>    Finnish Hewlett Packard says that later this year, smartcard readers
>    will become standard on computers in Scandinavia. "It is a really
>    big help for users, who don't have to remember dozens of
>    passwords when using different kind of services," Andler says.
>
>    The project has been moderately successful in Finland - the first
>    Nordic country to offer the secure email - as the system isn't any
>    more difficult to use than a standard email program. All the user
>    has to do is click "send."
>
>    For project developers, using strong crypto was never an issue.
>    "From the very beginning we've been basing this on strong crypto,"
>    says Vesa-Pekka Moilanen, technical director for Finland Post, and
>    mastermind of the email project. "At first, the customers are going
>    to be mainly professionals," he says, "but quite soon private
>    individuals will start using it." But the use of secure email probably
>    won't be widespread until 1998 - if then.
>
>    "If strong crypto is banned it's going to have major effects on the
>    development of information society," says Risto Siilasmaa, the
>    CEO and president of DataFellows, one of the only makers of
>    encryption programs in Finland. The Finnish government awarded
>    DataFellows "most innovative company" honors in 1996. "But
>    nobody is going to limit strong crypto. I haven't met a single
>    leading Nordic official who says otherwise."
>
>    One question, though: What if a Nordic citizen enters the United
>    States with the email program installed on his or her laptop? For
>    now, Nordic officials are only beginning to contemplate the
>    ramifications.