NETSCAPE GRANTED FEDERAL APPROVAL TO EXPORT NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR WITH STRONG 128-BIT ENCRYPTION TO CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (June 24, 1997)
-- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today announced the United States Department of Commerce has granted the company permission to export Netscape Communicator client software with 128-bit encryption capabilities. Available for immediate download from the Netscape Internet site, Netscape Communicator with strong encryption would allow users worldwide to enjoy far greater protection for their information when communicating with certified, strong encryption applications on Intranets and the Internet.
Netscape also received approval to export Netscape SuiteSpot server software featuring 128-bit encryption capabilities to certified banks worldwide. VeriSign will be providing a special-use digital certificate which enables the encryption. This will allow Netscape Communicator users to access their banking information from almost anywhere in the world and communicate using strong encryption with those banks which have implemented Netscape SuiteSpot servers and completed the certification process.
”The ability to export our products with strong encryption enables Netscape to provide its customers worldwide with client and server software that can improve the security of their information and applications,“ said Taher Elgamal, chief scientist at Netscape. ”This approval is another example of Netscape´sleadership in the privacy and security arenas and is especially important due to the recent breaking of 56-bit DES by the DESCHALL group last week.“
Full Text at:
http://home.netscape.com/flash2/newsref/pr/newsrelease428.html
Today´s breakthrough announcement marks the first time Netscape products with strong encryption have been made available to its customers outside the United States and Canada. Until now, Netscape was restricted by the United States Government to exporting software with 40-bit encryption even though128-bit encryption technology has been widely available in Netscape products since May 1995.
Encryption technology in computer software products scrambles information and renders it unreadable without a password or software ”key.“ The strength of encryption is largely a function of the length of the software keys measured in bits, the zeros and ones that make up the smallest unit of computer data. The larger the key size the more difficult it becomes for a person with malicious intent to decrypt communications. Each additional bit doubles the number of possible sequences in a software key, so the computer power required to decrypt a 128-bit key is more than 309,485,009,821,345,068,724,781,056 times harder than a 40-bit key.