Crypto Exports, Europe, and Conspiracy Theories

[Perry E. Metzger]

Alex Strasheim writes:
> Why aren't foreign companies flooding America with strong crypto?  Well, 
> there are clearly pressures of the sort Tim described at work.  But there 
> are other factors as well:
> 
> o	Crypto has only recently become useful/necessary to lots of
> 	business people -- the demand from crypto is born out of the
> 	networking boom, especially the Internet, which isn't picky
> 	about who can use it.

Security is an odd thing. I have clients who have obvious and very
extreme security needs that do not spend any real time worrying about
security and as a result end up being burned. However, until the day
you are burned, you never think about security and never notice it is
absent. To some extent, it is the job of consultants such as myself to
assure that firms understand what they have at stake and how to
protect themselves, especially by securing their communications
networks with cryptography.

Perry