The CSSPAB is having an open meeting today and tomorrow at the Gaithersburg Hilton. I happened to be there to hear an interesting exchange. (Those in the area might want to drop by tomorrow to sit in. (Tomorrow's agenda: Gov't email, reaction to public meeting on NII security; Congressional privacy & security; tax systems; NIST activities; public comment (sign up in advance with the secy))) ============================================================================== Lynn McNulty of NIST was giving a summary of the KEA (Key Escrow Alternatives) meeting of Aug 17. One of his summary lines was to the effect that industry believed there was a "significant market for escrow products". William Whitehurst of IBM, who had been at the KEA meeting, raised his hand to disagree with that statement. As he remembered it, industry believed there was a significant market for encryption and that it was an international market and that we (the US) were in danger of being left in the dust by foreign competition -- but that there was no market at all for escrow encryption. Steve Walker of TIS seconded Whitehurst's observation. Lynn replied that they were saying the same thing because the government won't allow export of encryption without key escrow therefore there's a big market for escrow products. ============================================================================== Makes lots of sense, doesn't it??? :-| - Carl