[83282] in Cypherpunks
Re: Verisign gets export approval
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tom Weinstein)
Thu Jul 17 21:32:57 1997
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 17:30:29 -0700
From: Tom Weinstein <tomw@netscape.com>
To: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
Reply-To: Tom Weinstein <tomw@netscape.com>
Bill Stewart wrote:
>
> Forwarded from PGP-USERS list:
> > First PGPInc and now VeriSign? Hmmm. Is this telling us something?
>
> "VeriSign on Monday said it received permission from
> the U.S. Department of Commerce to export 128-bit
> strong encryption software and issue digital
> identifications to approved organizations based on
> that software. "
>
> "Under the 128-bit scheme approved by the U.S.
> government Monday, companies will not need to
> place their encryption keys in escrow, or submit
> to U.S. government key-recovery requirements in
> order to use VeriSign's software, company officials said."
What this means is that VeriSign is now allowed to issue the "magic
banking certs" for servers that allow them to communicate with the
export version of Communicator using 128-bit SSL.
On the other hand, it's also meaningless until "approved organizations"
start getting approved.
--
What is appropriate for the master is not appropriate| Tom Weinstein
for the novice. You must understand Tao before | tomw@netscape.com
transcending structure. -- The Tao of Programming |
