Crypto Deals

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

News of easing US crypto limits sounds like the pr-fluff
put out in the summer for easing controls only for financial
institutions -- BXA is scheduled to release the rule
for that about now (originally set to be "near Labor Day"). 

If the news is about this rule, it may allow a few more 
"reputable institutions" to get the privilege traditionally extended 
to banks, so long as longstanding cooperation with
government is assured.

There's a report out of France on the government's issue of
a paper on crypto policy that reaffirms GAK for electronic
commerce with zero protection of privacy:

   http://jya.com/fr-gak.htm

There will probably be more such papers issued as international
cooperation to control encryption is codified in accordance
with the Wassenaar Arrangement and whatever secret
agreements Aron and others have concluded. 

The US version will probably come out gradually as global 
agreements are firmed up, Congress is briefed, and US agencies 
are satisfied that export holes in other countries have been closed.
Then watch for domestic clampdown on encryption, as Cohen and 
others have warned must be done to protect the populace from
too much freedom.

The secret deals among governments to share technology for information
security and electronic surveillance in return for global controls must be 
wonderful reads of duplicity and disinformation, among the participants
in the classified parts, and among the populace in the public versions.

On a related topic, weakness of DES, the ANSI X9 committee handling
cryptography has circulated a draft paper on what banks should do in 
response to recent successful cracks of DES:

   http://jya.com/destran.htm