HP UNVEILS NEW CRYPTO CONTROL FRAMEWORK

Hewlett-Packard announced a new framework technology designed to let governments enable and disable strong cryptography products. The framework is independent of the method used in a given product. The heart of the system is a small, tamper-resistant module with the cryptographic algorithms that remain dormant until activated. A policy activation token (basically some key bits) can be used to choose between the various crypto algorithms stored on the module. The HP press release makes this sound like the greatest thing since public key encryption, but in reality it appears to be just another attempt to insert government control into private data exchanges. Look for legislative attempts to make this technology mandatory on all encryption products. Technology details are at the site. <URL:http://www.dmo.hp.com/gsy/security/icf/main.html>

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