India Warns Against U.S. Security Software
(01/14/99, 8:31 p.m. ET)
By Malcolm Maclachlan, TechWeb
Internet privacy advocates have said for years that limits on encryption
exports could cripple the U.S. software industry, and now the Indian
government has agreed with them.
In a statement that has gone mostly unnoticed in the United States, the
Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) on Monday issued
a "red alert" warning against all U.S.-made network-security software.
In a letter to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), an Indian
intelligence agency, the DRDO cited the limits the U.S. government places on
encryption exports as the reason for the alert. The U.S. National Security
Agency limits most exported products to relatively weak 64-bit encryption.
"To put it bluntly, only insecure software can be exported," the DRDO letter
states. "When various multinational companies go around peddling 'secure
communication software' products to gullible Indian customers, they
conveniently neglect to mention this aspect of U.S. export law."
More at: http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990114S0018
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