What NAI is telling people

[Phillip H. Zakas]

none of the rep's claims are true.  note that AOL-Hong Kong would be in
violation if this were true.  the rep is probably confusing laws regarding
export of encryption/munitions.  also note that it's nearly impossible to
detect encrypted email anyway as the methods (obfuscation, steg., etc.)
available outnumber detection techniques available to isps.
phillip

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-cypherpunks at Algebra.COM
> [mailto:owner-cypherpunks at Algebra.COM]On Behalf Of
> codehead at ix.netcom.com
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 5:29 PM
> To: cypherpunks at lne.com
> Subject: What NAI is telling people
>
>
>
> I just got off the phone with one of the customer service people at
> NAI, who informed me that "Encrypted e-mails from certain countries
> aren't accepted in the US" and that accepting encrypted email from
> one of the "black list" (i.e., North Korea, Libya, Iran, Iraq, China,
> etc.) is illegal under US law.
>
> When queried about the issue of *accepting* encrypted e-mail from a
> "black-list" country, the customer rep stated that this is what he
> was told by higher-ups in the company.
>
> Never mind the issue of web-based email, mail originating from the
> dot-com, dot-edu, dot-net or dot-org TLDs, spoofed headers or open
> relays.  It was impossible to resist quoting Tim May on the
> transparency of national borders, and to point out that so far,
> anyway, there was no ubiquitous filter at the borders.  The rep
> backpedaled and stated that "some" ISPs, specifically AOL, were
> choosing not to accept such email.
>
> Anyone have any idea if any ISPs are refusing to accept encrypted
> email from "black-listed" countries?
>
> Or is this just a matter of NAI cluelessness?