Crypto News

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

     25 June 1997:

     A Canadian company claims it has a unique product that can 
     spur acceptance of biometric encryption. 

     The Touchstone device, from Mytec Technologies Inc. of
     Toronto, includes a patented technology called Bioscrypt-a
     coded key or personal identification number that can be
     decoded only when the user's finger slides across a scanner. 

     Mytec says it adds a layer of security to the fingerprint
     scanning methods typical at other vendors. 

     "What we do is slide a finger across a scanner, which takes
     the information in the finger pattern and allows it to
     descramble the encrypted key," said George Tomko,
     chairman and co-founder of Mytec. 

     The finger itself becomes essentially an encryption key and
     can be used in place of a personal identification number at a
     keyboard, automated teller machine, telephone, or to scramble
     data over the Internet. 

     "With this kind of technology, everyone's finger is a potential
     encryption key," said Mr. Tomko. 

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     NetDox, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Department of
     Commerce has granted export approval for NetDox
     ePackage, a secure Internet document delivery service. 
     This makes NetDox the first U.S. company authorized to
     offer businesses a global digital delivery service protected by
     128-bit encryption over the Internet without providing clear
     text access to key recovery agents. 

----------

     The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. decided Tuesday not to
     regulate stored-value cards. 

----------

     Two long reports on Netscape/Verisign's and Microsoft's approval 
     for 128-bit products export.

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Above reports in full:

     http://jya.com/cn062597.txt

----------

For those who've not seen it we offer the bill introduced on
June 19 by Representative Markey, "The "Communications 
Privacy and Consumer Empowerment Act":

     http://jya.com/hr1964.txt

It has a provision for data security and pre-emption of
government regulation of domestic encryption.