----- Forwarded Cyberia-L message (DAVID POST <postd@EROLS.COM>) -----<
Someone else pointed to a recent story in the Economist, which listed the leading encryption software/services companies worldwide, each of which is Israeli.
Bidzos made the claim, and many others echoed, that the export controls are in the process of doing nothing more than ceding a potentially lucrative market to others, a market in which the US might otherwise be expected to be the dominant player. It may even, in the eyes of some, be too late to undo this damage.
Not only that, but where are the cryptographers of the future going to come from for the NSA to recruit? Israel?? Oh right, foreign nationals privy to our own highest secrets, give me a break. Do they intend to train them themselves? If so, that's identical in principle to universities granting tenure to their own graduates. You get inbred that way, so universities don't do that. The principle behind crypto secrecy presumes that other people don't have the secret. Once they do, you only hurt yourself by trying to keep a double-edged sword in the closet. The NSA believes that they can and should discard any amount of benefits of crypto in exchange for avoiding any harm of crypto. They are wrong. -russ <nelson@crynwr.com> http://www.crynwr.com/~nelson Crynwr Software | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | PGP ok 11 Grant St. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | It's no mistake to err on Potsdam, NY 13676 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX | the side of freedom.