The February 2nd edition of "Washington TELECOM Week" reports that the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) have jointly submitted to the Whitehouse a paper that warns the administration about the folly of continuing the "virtual embargo" that is in place for all exports of encryption controlled by the State Department. The paper warns that the nation will take a heavy hit if export restrictions are not "significantly eased." According to the groups, stringent export controls on encryption software and products are a blow to both the economy and national security. The member companies of the two large groups have concluded that it is "no longer in the national interest to use export control policy as a tool to impede data security products." According to the paper, even the new policy leads to a number of injurious consequences, including the loss of sales and the loss of efficiency. It emphasizes that there is a growing need for data security products containing encryption in the private sector, both in the US and overseas. The export controls, said the paper, "lead to increased risk of penetration from hackers, commercial competitors, terrorists and others." Hence, they call for the development of cheap, easy-to-use encryption for a wide variety of potential applications, or "the U.S. Government and industry both will suffer." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |So, I went walking through the street. |Mark Aldrich | |I saw you strung up in a tree. |GRCI INFOSEC Engineering | |A woman knelt there, said to me, |maldrich@grci.com | |Hold your tongue, man, hold your tongue. |MAldrich@dockmaster.ncsc.mil | |_______________________________________________________________________| |The author is PGP Empowered. Public key at: finger maldrich@grci.com | | The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author | | and my employer gets no credit for them whatsoever. | -------------------------------------------------------------------------