[Fwd: Cylink can export 128-bit DH?]

To: Wei Dai <weidai@eskimo.com>
Subject: Cylink can export 128-bit DH?
From: peng-chiew low <pclow@pc.jaring.my>
Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 10:16:17 +0700
CC: cypherpunks@taod.com
References: <Pine.SUN.3.93.960430130125.8652A-100000@eskimo.com>

Wei Dai wrote:
> Does anyone know more about these no-cost licenses?  I wouldn't mind
> getting free DH a year early...

Dear Wei Dai
I understand that ITAR prohibits the export of strong crypto
and that is why I was puzzled that Ms Glenda Barnes, the Director
of Marketing in Cylink, said that Cylink could export the same crypto
(i.e. DES) that was used in the U.S. to local banks here in Malaysia.
She also claimed that Cylink could also export a 128-bit DH key size.
(is it strong enough in the first place? )

I'm confused : Either she's pulling wool over the attendees' eyes or
Cylink has got some pretty good connections.

She could not have been mistaken as she was replying to a specific 
question about the ITAR and the export issue of strong crypto.

Can anyone help?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>>>>> "p-c l" == peng-chiew low <pclow@pc.jaring.my> writes:

p-c l> Dear Wei Dai I understand that ITAR prohibits the export of
p-c l> strong crypto and that is why I was puzzled that Ms Glenda
p-c l> Barnes, the Director of Marketing in Cylink, said that Cylink
p-c l> could export the same crypto (i.e. DES) that was used in the
p-c l> U.S. to local banks here in Malaysia.

I'd assume that the magic word here is "banks".  It's usually no
problem to export strong crypto from US, if it's used only for banking
purposes.  IBM delivers SmartCards with full Triple-DES to
bank-customers in Germany: absolutely no problem.


My personal oppinion is, that banks
a) don't encrypt arbitrary data, but only specific accounting data
b) banks can be quite easily house-searched, if you really want to get
   a hold on their data


Have a nice day,

Olmur
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peng-chiew low writes:
> I understand that ITAR prohibits the export of strong crypto
> and that is why I was puzzled that Ms Glenda Barnes, the Director
> of Marketing in Cylink, said that Cylink could export the same crypto
> (i.e. DES) that was used in the U.S. to local banks here in Malaysia.

DES isn't particularly impressive. Now, if they could export 3DES...

> She also claimed that Cylink could also export a 128-bit DH key size.
> (is it strong enough in the first place? )

No.

Perry