Firstly, I would like to thank Cypherpunks members for helping me evaluate and critique my document on PrivaSoft's security. I would like to address several of the issues raised on list list. 1. Alot of question would be answered if you had a copy of PrivaSoft to look at or at least a scrambled page to examine. Both of these are available at our WEB site (http://www.privasoft.com/privasoft) this is not an advertising plug, it really helps to see the thing in action to better understand its capabilities. 2. Re: the 9 digit key. Partially why you misunderstand the strength of the 9 digit key in PrivaSoft is b/c Graphical Encryption is very different form data encryption. Graphic encryption takes an image of your document and scrambles the tiles accross the page in a pseudo-random order based both on the encryption algorithm and the key used, Each key produces a completely different scramble. Further, descrambling entails moving tiles and recognition of readable text. An edge detection machine would not be helpful with PrivaSoft, as far as I know, OCR or human interface, or the PrivaSoft descrambler( with the correct key) are the only methods that can be employed. And all three of these take considerable time. Time is a key factor here (no pun intended). the strength of an encryption relies heavily on the time it takes to bruteforce check different keys. as such, even the addition of 10 miliseconds to the process is a significant increase in security when taken on the large scale of how many keys need to be checked. 3. The key extension is useful when documents are scrambled using the same default key. This feature adds 2 digits to your key, thus, even the same exact document scrambled with the same key but a different key extension would produce a radically diofferent scramble. 4. With regard to the increased font size, this is not necessary but is helpful in that the tiles themselves would contain less recognisable features of letters. 5. As a fax security product, their is nothing comparable to PrivaSoft in ease of use, strength, verstility. I'm sure you have all recieved faxes that have come in skewed, with heavy line noise, a black line running accros the page, or any other combanaiton of fax problems. These do not effect PrivaSoft's capability to descramble the fax, PrivaSoft has several patented features that produce readable text even after moderate damage to the page. Also, if you haven't figured this out yet, PrivaSoft is the only encryption software that provides Hardcopy encryption and decryption, ie. you can print out a hardcopy of the scrambled image, and fax it, store it, even snail mail it and then on the recieving end, fax or scan it back into the pc and decrypt. 6. re: custimization: This refers to our capability, for corperate clients and the like, to produce batch operation or need specific features. Also we can increase the digits of the key if the client requires such, as in gov't agencies etc, however this is not necesary for day to day use as PrivaSoft is strong enough for most transmissions over the Net and via fax regardless of the prevalent comments by many members of this group. I do not take offence at the many slurs on our product. I fully believe that if any of those who believe that PrivaSoft is a fly-by-night or bogus product have not looked at or tried the software and therfore speak from less than a knowledgable position. Please do not take this the wrong way, I do not mean to insult anyones inteligence or ability, I just mean to say that many here are quick to judge, and they have a right to be suspicious of everything and everyone, that is the nature of security, but I do challenge the naysayers to truly check out the software before completely condeming its use and capabilities. I have personnally demonstrated are software to several key individuals in the gov't, military, and corperate arenas both executive and technical persons. All were impressed have taken the software back for further testing. I have recieved positive responces from them and many have recomended / are presently using PrivaSoft. Once again, thank you for your help in editing and restructurin g the How secure document and i will post an updated version when it is ready. Also, if anyone would like a scrambled page E-mailed to them to look at / try to crack please E-mail me as such, I do not wish to post one only b/c many of you might not want to recieve it. If you have further questions or comments, I do appreciate and encourage them, please feel free to E-mail me at privsoft@ix.netcom.com or post them here. Steve O. ************************************************* PrivaSoft TM * 1877 Springfield Ave PO BOX 600 * Maplewood NJ 07040-0600 * Tel. 201-378-8865 Fax. 201-762-3742 * Http://www.privasoft.com/privasoft * E-mail: privsoft@ix.netcom.com * *************************************************