According to a story posted to C|net tonight, the Clinton administration will likely release the third Clipper/GAK proposal soon. The article (available at http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,3791,00.html ) indicates: "What the proposal specifies is still a matter of speculation, but an article today in the Daily Report for Executives quotes unnamed U.S. officials saying the plan will raise the ceiling on encryption export controls, institute a key-escrow system, and give the Commerce Department authority to grant export licenses. If the report is correct, the two big surprises are a new 56-bit limit key length, with export of anything higher subject to key escrow, and the authorizing of the Justice Department--most likely the Federal Bureau of Investigation--to reject any applications for export licenses." There's a sidebar to the story with several other crypto-related stories, mentioning ProCODE and last Friday's hearing in the Bernstein case. -- Greg Broiles | "We pretend to be their friends, gbroiles@netbox.com | but they fuck with our heads." http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | |