[H-GEN] LAN Magazine: Crypto Article.

[Robert Brockway]

On Mon, 29 Jun 1998, Raymond Smith wrote:

> One point that surprised me was that the export of Cryptographic Software
> from Australia is controled in an analogous way to the US. People either

This is not well known at all.  I've even had ppl flattly not believe me
when I have stated this.

> need a permit (for a particular program), or a license to export. 
> Approval is given by the Director of Strategic Policy and Operations
> (STPO) of the Department of Defence (DoD) in consultation with the Defence
> Signals Directorate (DSD -- which is our equivalent to the NSA).

Ah the old DSD.  I always thought it stood for Digitial Signals
Directorate, glad to have the correct info.
 
> Of particular interest is that the Cryptozilla Project may be violating
> our export regime. Apparently the current STPO was embarrsed when at an
> international conference he said that Australia wanted to relax it's
> restrictions on 40-bit encryption and was knocked back because "Australia
> is already exporting 128-bit encryption". He is quoted as saying "It was
> an embarrasment to Australia because our controls were being flaunted".

I have loong been of the belief that these laws were simple not beinf
inforced.  Almost every Western Nation has a restriction of exporting
crypto similar to the US one.

> I don't know which is scarier, that encryption is controled, or that the
> guys in Canberra didn't know about Cyptozilla.

Both :)
Cheers,
	-Robert

--Robert Brockway B.Sc.  Email: robert at blake.humbug.org.au,
				robert at humbug.org.au, r.brockway at uq.net.au
                         WWW:   http://www.humbug.org.au/~robert
Immediate Past President of HUMBUG (http://www.humbug.org.au)