Re: Quick commercial package question

[Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>]

Jonathon Fletcher wrote:
| 
|   There's a compression/archiving package on the Mac call Stuffit. It
| comes in the usual Lite (get free then register) and Deluxe (money first,
| product later) flavours. It offers, amongst it's options, an encryption
| option on a 'per archive entry'. This means you can have an archive with a
| mix of encrypted and unencrypted files and folders, all in the same
| archive. 
| 
|   Question is - does anyone know anything about the strength or
| trustability of the encryption algorithm used ? It's freely exportable
| from the US (or so I thought) so it can't be DES. Is it (down) on a level
| with the MS Word or Wordperfect ciphers, or is it a little better ? How
| far should I trust it ? 

	Its a 40 bit watered down version of DES.  Stuffit 2 included
DES, so Aladdin is aware of strong crypto, but the cost of shipping
two versions was too high.

Adam

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume