[5601] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: IP: Admin Plans to Loosen Encryption Restrictions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ben Laurie)
Wed Sep 15 09:25:58 1999
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 13:02:50 +0100
From: Ben Laurie <ben@algroup.co.uk>
To: Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Bill Frantz wrote:
>
> At 9:56 AM -0700 9/14/99, Robert Hettinga forwarded:
> >Source: New York Times
> >http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/cyber/capital/14capital.html
> >
> >September 14, 1999
> >
> >By JERI CLAUSING
> >
> >Administration Plans to Loosen Encryption Restrictions
> >
> >In June, the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption sent
> >the White House a report recommending the Administration loosen its
> >restrictions on encryption technology to allow for the export of consumer
> >products based on a 128-bit key. That is significantly stronger than the
> >current limit on encryption products exempt from control.
>
> My reading said that while you could export 128 bit encryption, you were
> still limited to 512 bit discrete log/RSA for key agreement. With that
> restriction, only spies, drug dealers, and others who can exchange keys via
> physical means can have strong encryption.
Don't the current rules allow 1024 bits? (Which makes me think the NSA
know something about factoring that we don't).
Cheers,
Ben.
--
http://www.apache-ssl.org/ben.html
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
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first group; there was less competition there."
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