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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] US Eases up on Security Software Exports
From:       mea culpa <jericho () dimensional ! com>
Date:       1999-03-18 10:16:08
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http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/09encrypt.html

March 9, 1999
U.S. Eases Up on Security Software Exports 
By REUTERS

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The Internet security software maker Verisign
Inc. said Monday that the United States agency that controls software
exports would allow the company to ship its high-security products to a
broader set of overseas customers. 
 
Verisign stock surged after news of the expanded United States export
approval, rising $14.75, or 14 percent, to $119, in Nasdaq trading.

The company said it had won approval from the United States Department of
Commerce's Bureau of Export Administration to expand the sale of its
128-bit Global Server identification digital certificates.

The software, which is used to authenticate the identity of individual
computer users and thus pave the way for commercial transactions, uses
128-bit encryption, considered a virtually unbreakable code against hacker
attacks.

Verisign said expanded sales authorization now includes online merchants,
health care and insurance organizations and overseas units of United
States corporations.

Previously, such customers had to make do with weaker 40-bit encryption
because of Government export limitations on more powerful encryption
technology, which the Government regulates under laws designed to keep
advanced munitions from slipping into enemy hands.

Encryption software supporters see the sale of such software overseas as
crucial to the United States computer industry's competitiveness; critics
see the software as a potential threat to national security.

-o-
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