FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 26, 1994 Contact: Ken Campbell, Director, MIT News Office (617 253-2703 or 2700 NON-COMMERCIAL USE MIT Issues Software Codes To Promote Internet Privacy The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has issued--for non-commercial use--a free public software package that will allow people to send private coded messages on electronic networks in the United States. The release provides non-commercial U.S. users of the Internet with the ability to obtain secure communication and data protection. Commercial versions have been licensed to over four million users. The software, known as PGP Version 2.6 (for "pretty good privacy") uses the RSAREF(TM) Cryptographic Toolkit, supplied by RSA Data Security, Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. It is being released by MIT with the agreement of RSADSI. PGP 2.6 is fully licensed, for U.S. non-commercial users, to use public-key technology that has been licensed by MIT and Stanford University to RSA Data Security and Public Key Partners. Public-key technology gives users of electronic mail the ability to sign messages in an unforgeable way, as well as the ability to send confidential messages that can be read only by the intended recipients, without any prior need to exchange secret keys. "This agreement solves the problem of software being distributed on the Internet which potentially infringed the intellectual property of MIT and the licensee, RSA, " said Professor James D. Bruce, vice president for information systems. Although prior versions of PGP have been available on the Internet, the potential infringement of MIT and Stanford University patents has prevented it from coming into widespread adoption. END