Quick commercial package question

Just a brief question.

  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 ? 

-Jon

--
  Jonathon Fletcher,        "these opinions are my own, no-one else's"
  jonathon@japan.sbi.com

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