Press/Digital Wins US Dept of Comm. Approval to Export Encryption Prod. (fwd)

[Vincent Cate <vince@offshore.com.ai>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 08:37:24 -0500
From: DIGITAL PRESS RELEASE <irprod@nimv03.das.dec.com>
To: pr-news@majordomo.das-x.dec.com
Subject: Press/Digital Wins US Dept of Comm. Approval to Export Encryption Prod.


||||||  Digital Press and Analysts News  ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

                                              Digital Equipment Corporation
                                          Maynard, Massachusetts 01754-2571

Editorial contact:

   Patrick Ward
   (508) 493-9441
   patrick.ward@mail.dec.com

           Digital Equipment Corporation Wins US Department of 
         Commerce Approval to Export Stronger Encryption Products

                 56-bit Data Scrambling Technology
               Safeguards Internet Commerce Worldwide

MAYNARD, Mass., February 3, 1997 -- Digital Equipment Corporation 
today announced that it has won United States Department of Commerce 
approval to export 56-bit encryption products worldwide, the 
strongest yet for protecting Internet commerce worldwide.

     Last week a University of California at Berkeley graduate 
student used a set of workstations to crack a 40-bit encryption code 
in 3.5 hours.  "The same workstations would require more than 20 
years to break a 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES Code), 
according to Samuel H. Fuller, DIGITAL's vice president and chief 
scientist.

     "The Commerce Department's action enables DIGITAL to provide 
its international customers with complete systems for electronic 
commerce over the Internet, including the necessary security 
software," according to DIGITAL's Chairman, Robert B. Palmer. "This 
makes the Internet more attractive for our customers worldwide, and 
represents an exciting market opportunity for DIGITAL."

     "We are very pleased with the leadership shown by DIGITAL's top 
management, including Robert Palmer, in making a long-term 
commitment to develop, produce and market key recovery products and 
to take advantage of the Administration's new policy on encryption 
exports," said Sue E. Eckert, assistant secretary for Export 
Administration.

     DIGITAL will immediately export 56-bit encryption for its 
OpenVMS operating systems and for its RoadAbout/DES Product for 
wireless LAN computing.  Shipments of the 56-bit export version of 
AltaVista Tunnel will follow this year.

     "AltaVista Tunnel software can simply and cost-effectively 
create 'Virtual Private Networks,' allowing customers who are 
traveling or at remote sites to securely access their company's 
private network over the public Internet," said Ilene H. Lang, 
president and chief executive officer of AltaVista Internet 
Software, and a vice president at DIGITAL. "Now the Virtual Private 
Networks we offer to customers in the United States can become 
Global Private Networks as the market expands worldwide."

     The Commerce Department announced on December 30 that American 
companies could export "strong" or Data Encryption Standard (DES)
encryption products, such as DIGITAL's industry-leading AltaVista 
Tunnel, if the companies could demonstrate progress in developing 
key-recovery products over the next two years.  Previously the US 
government had restricted export of strong encryption for security 
reasons.

     Digital Equipment Corporation is a world leader in open client/
server solutions from personal computers to integrated worldwide 
information systems.  DIGITAL's scalable Alpha and Intel platforms, 
storage, networking, software and services, together with industry-
focused solutions from business partners, help organizations compete 
and win in today's global marketplace.
                                ####

Note to Editors:  DIGITAL, the DIGITAL logo and OpenVMS are 
                  trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.

CORP/97/537
============================================================================
Digital Press and Analysts News is sent as a courtesy to members of 
the press, analyst and consulting community.  For subscription 
information please contact pr-news@pa.dec.com.  All Digital press 
releases, fact sheets and backgrounders are archived on ftp.digital.com 
in the /pub/Digital/info/pr-news directory.  They are also available at 
http://www.digital.com/info/pr-news/ on the World Wide Web .
============================================================================