Lotus to export 64 bit, partially-escrowed Notes

[Peter Trei]

Alerted by a colleague at the RSA Data Security conference today, I just
checked the Lotus site. Folks may wish to look at  

http://www.lotus.com/home/whatsnew.htm

A new 'international' version of Lotus notes is being released, with
64 bit session keys, as opposed to the old 40 bit version.

24 bits of the session key are stored encrypted under a special, 
government-access RSA public key. This is in addittion to the full
64 bit key being available under the recipient's public RSA key.

The idea is that the USG would have to search only a 40-bit keyspace,
while others will need to search a 64-bit keyspace.

Reportedly, this 'workfactor reduction key' will NOT be available to 
foreign governments.

My colleague reports that opinion at the conference was divided over
whether Lotus was doing something which made good business
sense, or whether this was 'caving-in'.

Speaking only for myself

Peter Trei
trei at process.com