Frank rites:
>Also, unless you are bank or an arm of a foreign gov't I believe the largest
>exportable key size is 40 & can be broken by a brute force attack (as Netscape
>so amply demonstrated with their brilliant IDEA). <pun intended>
May have been exactly what Marc intended...
Really though, ITAR (International Trade in Arms Regulation) is not well
understood (AFAIR you can find a copy on eff.org) which leads to many
mythconceptions as above (actually is a facinating document to read - almost
as good as Brent's book which just arrived - he even had the effrontery
to claim I paid too much 8*).
There is -=>NO<=- ITAR limit on the size of a key which may be sent abroad,
many of us regularly send our 1024 bit PGP keys internationally. (And BTW,
technology exists which can break 40 bit IDEA in an average of an hour and
a half).
What ITAR limits is the export of cryptographic *equipment* (software
is equipment and if you think that is strange, in some cases ITAR
considers patented ciphers to be in the public domain) capable of
generating larger keys (there is some question about export of receive-
only software). Further, the list of exceptions to ITAR is quite long -
antivirus software is one, ATM (bank) machine transactions is another,
cable TV is YA. However if it can generate a key, it is essentially
verboden. (Violations are considered on a case by case basis so wearing
your Li'l Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring to Guadalahara is probably
OK but might have to get a license. Consult a shyster 8*)
And while the nits are RIPEM, Netscape used Ron's Code number 4, not IDEA,
after an initial RSA exchange. Phil is the one who uses RSA/IDEA.
Warmly,
Padgett
ps floppy drive problem is fixed - replaced mammy board. 486DX-4/100s
are now down to U$200. Checkit says it is 131 times faster than an XT
- and is obsolete but I am cheap & it uses my 30 pin SIMMs. Thanks to
those who wreplied. Would like to know why none of my diagnostics found
anything rong. "No disk in drive" was the closest any got.
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