German Official Pleas for Strong Encryption

[Donald Weightman]

Reuters (as picked up in today's FINANCIAL TIMES) reports that German
economics minister Gunter Rexrodt called for loosening the restrictions on
strong encryption. Speaking yesterday at a European ministerial conference
on global integration, he said "Users can only protect themselves against
having data manipulated, destroyed, or spied on through the use of strong
encryption procedures."


Hmmm: seems like there's a trend among Certain Global Opinion Makers that
some people -- maybe the financial markets?  -- need good crypto: compare
last week's ECONOMIST and FINANCIAL TIMES editorials.  Anyone know how the
new German legislation deals with encryption?


cheers

.........................................
Donald Weightman
dweightman at radix.net