And I am new here, so doubly sorry for the same reason. But I was corresponding with Via Crypt on this same point and here is a copy of what they sent me.
From barnhart@viacrypt.comWed Mar 27 05:22:25 1996 Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 12:08:49 -0700 From: "Dave Barnhart, ViaCrypt Product Manager" <barnhart@viacrypt.com> To: moen@cyberspace.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Dear Sir: Eric Nesson here at ViaCrypt has shared your email inquiry with me, and I thought I should contact you to provide you with some clarification and more information. The post you read on alt.security.pgp is in reference to *new types of keys* that ViaCrypt PGP can create. This means that, in addition to the PGP keys that we have all been using for a long time now, ViaCrypt PGP can also create keys with some special attributes.It is these *new types of keys* that are not recognized by the existing freeware PGP. You can continue to use your existing keys with ViaCrypt PGP 4.0. And you can create new keys that are fully interoperable with all the older PGP's out there. It is only when you generate a new key and turn on one of these special attributes that it becomes unrecognizable by the existing freeware PGP. These special attributes I refer to are: 1. "This key can be used for encryption/decryption only. It cannot be used for digital signatures." 2. "This key can be used for digital signatures only. It cannot be used for encryption/decryption." We call keys with this special attributes 'single-function keys'. I hope this answers your questions. If not please do not hesitate to ask. Best Regards, David Barnhart ViaCrypt Product Manager -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.0 Business Edition iQEVAwUBMVg4u3hUuWjy7vyrAQEG9ggAnfOGI9tkYa8/W66UvTb+7TBmzHbiPPYw 1J8iBOp+Uj75hxUhr9gY45IUZtcqYHLHCECVpoqcLU2iJsVqMKhv5ohmiTYHEW4Z xYzbO5lpWqL3rkSMRZK/pXnlumfZTuS94jY9bKyn0dDCqeZ2p7UtAE7/HD7DoAIj 4tMnyNxZxvo0IoxPOCxOTKgdrSB3/KxJWZSAWUPvzNBU+XTpfXu4LvI0sZKOS9Nr 0jEUUwmmrawldei31w916Zc20hmHsP6rOfSaiC5n/03ZXgW976q1sBViDAdwuuPP ktsCrAB5A2MxuYve1XVVRXwPc7rLN4T4RHqUcKgw4nvnbiKmGYcliA== =OFTV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- On Tue, 26 Mar 1996, Alan Olsen wrote:
I have not seen this here yet, so sorry if you have seen it...
ViaCrypt is claiming that they are now shipping the Windows version of their PGP 4.0. (I tend to not believe marketing claims until I hear from people who actually have it.)
Does anyone know if there are plans for this version to be interoperable with PGP 3.0?
Furthermore, has anyone tried the new version? --- Alan Olsen -- alano@teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon