Strong cryptography does more good for society than harm and placing backdoors in encryption products to allow law enforcement access to plain text messages would be "worse than futile", encryption guru Phil Zimmermann told The Register today. Zimmermann, the creator . . . . Strong cryptography does more good for society than harm and placing backdoors in encryption products to allow law enforcement access to plain text messages would be "worse than futile", encryption guru Phil Zimmermann told The Register today. Zimmermann, the creator of the popular email encryption package PGP, told us that reversing the policy of allowing strong cryptography "under the terrible emotional pressure" created by the September 11 atrocities would be a "mistake". The possibility that terrorists might use potentially unbreakable encryption was considered when legislation on ecommerce was formulated in the 1990s, and it recognised that the need to protect ecommerce came before law enforcement concerns. Encryption products with backdoor access are inherently less secure. "I'm not insensitive to the downside of the technology" said Zimmermann. "But if you impose controls on encryption, the bad guys won't use products featuring backdoor cryptographic access." . Strong cryptography does more good for society than harm and placing backdoors in encryption product. strong, cryptography, society, placing, backdoors, encryption, product. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Calgary, Canada -- OpenBSD announces release 2.7 of the "Secure by Default" operating system for Internet servers and workstations. OpenBSD 2.7 significantly enhances the built-in strong cryptography with the OpenSSH suite to support the SSH 1 and 2 secure communication protocols . . . . Calgary, Canada -- OpenBSD announces release 2.7 of the "Secure by Default" operating system for Internet servers and workstations. OpenBSD 2.7 significantly enhances the built-in strong cryptography with the OpenSSH suite to support the SSH 1 and 2 secure communication protocols and drivers for hardware accelerators for IPSec VPNs. "OpenBSD's principal goal of security and stability is NETSEC's basis for using it as foundation of our managed security solution," stated Todd Waskelis, NETSEC Vice President. "We've even funded the development efforts of the hardware crypto support in OpenBSD 2.7, which allows us to deliver high bandwidth VPN connections cost-effectively to our clients, and as a bonus, anyone can do it themselves since the code is free". OpenBSD's cryptography has been further enhanced by encrypting virtual memory swap space, and by more flexible ISAKMPD key exchange and operating modes for IP Security networking. OpenBSD completely avoids the US export controls on cryptography because it is published in Canada with cryptographic software developed entirely outside the USA. Support for SSH1 and HTTPS secure protocols depends on the RSA public key algorithm patented in the USA. Users worldwide may use the OpenSSL free library while those in the USA must use the non-commercial RSAREF library to abide by the patent. "This is the last release where we have to worry about the RSA patent since it expires on September 21", says project leader Theo de Raadt. "RSA is the premier key exchange algorithm and this patent has held a greater stranglehold on cryptographic operations than any government policy". OpenBSD's SSH support is done with the free OpenSSH suite also developed by OpenBSD team members. The suite hasbeen ported to other systems and is rapidly gaining in popularity. OpenBSD 2.7 improves support for high end system boards, SCSI controllers, ethernet interfaces, and adds gigabit ethernet drivers and IPv6 networking. There are over 500 pre-compiled application packages ready to install, and most Linux binaries run without recompiling thanks to the emulation system. OpenBSD is free software, released under a Berkeley-style open source license. It is developed by a team of Internet volunteers, based on UC Berkeley's 4.4BSD-Lite. OpenBSD runs on PCs, SPARC, Mac68K and other hardware. All development is funded by donations and the sale of CD-ROMs and T-shirts. Commercial support is available from third party contractors and companies. OpenBSD on the Web: http://www.OpenBSD.org/ What's new in OpenBSD 2.7: http://www.OpenBSD.org/27.html About OpenSSH: https://www.openssh.org/ What they say about OpenBSD: http://www.OpenBSD.org/testimonials.html Commercial Support: http://www.OpenBSD.org/support.html Press Contact: Louis Bertrand Press relations Voice: (905) 623-1500 Fax: (905) 623-3852 Toronto, Canada Theo de Raadt Project leader Calgary, Canada Sales: Canada/US/International: The Computer Shop, Calgary, Canada Voice: (403) 243-4356 (Mon-Fri 9-5 Mountain time) Fax: (403) 243-2684 Europe: kd85.com BVBA Wim Vandeputte Kasteeldreef 85 9920 Lovendegem Belgium Email:
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