X
Government

Netscape gets OK for improved security

Netscape scored a minor win Monday when the U.S. Commerce Department gave the company permission to start exporting stronger encryption with its browser software, according to a Reuters report.
Written by Robert Lemos, Contributor

Netscape scored a minor win Monday when the U.S. Commerce Department gave the company permission to start exporting stronger encryption with its browser software, according to a Reuters report.

Yet, the government's concession came with a caveat: Netscape must begin offering the government access to the keys used to encode messages within two years. Products that allow keys to be recovered by administrators - and thus, give them access to the messages - can have unlimited key lengths under current encryption laws.

Netscape called this "part one" of a plan to make possible worldwide 128-bit key encryption standards. Step two aims at bringing full 128-bit key encryption to financial institutions worldwide.

One important facet of the decision is that multinational companies can now use more secure browsers throughout their global networks. "The export of 56-bit encryption in Netscape's software is an important milestone for increasing security on global networks," said Taher Elgamel, chief scientist at Netscape.

The key recovery system is a minor one. Many companies have requested a key recovery system to be included in e-mail programs as a feature in the future. The reason: corporations want access to business-related e-mail so that employees who forget their keys - or leave the company - do not hurt business as well.

The company will begin 56-bit-key encryption products in a few months.

Editorial standards