News of easing US crypto limits sounds like the pr-fluff put out in the summer for easing controls only for financial institutions -- BXA is scheduled to release the rule for that about now (originally set to be "near Labor Day"). If the news is about this rule, it may allow a few more "reputable institutions" to get the privilege traditionally extended to banks, so long as longstanding cooperation with government is assured. There's a report out of France on the government's issue of a paper on crypto policy that reaffirms GAK for electronic commerce with zero protection of privacy: http://jya.com/fr-gak.htm There will probably be more such papers issued as international cooperation to control encryption is codified in accordance with the Wassenaar Arrangement and whatever secret agreements Aron and others have concluded. The US version will probably come out gradually as global agreements are firmed up, Congress is briefed, and US agencies are satisfied that export holes in other countries have been closed. Then watch for domestic clampdown on encryption, as Cohen and others have warned must be done to protect the populace from too much freedom. The secret deals among governments to share technology for information security and electronic surveillance in return for global controls must be wonderful reads of duplicity and disinformation, among the participants in the classified parts, and among the populace in the public versions. On a related topic, weakness of DES, the ANSI X9 committee handling cryptography has circulated a draft paper on what banks should do in response to recent successful cracks of DES: http://jya.com/destran.htm