Is there any practical diference between the version of PGP
you
should download only within the USA, and international
versions such
as that from pgpi.com?
I was wondering since you are apparently not supposed to
download the
American version if you are outside the country.
Is this stipulation merely a formality to enable American
sites to
follow the letter of their law regarding export of
cryptographic "munitions", so they can point users
to an
international site where they would basically be downloading
an
identical product? Or is there a real difference between
the
programs - I'm thinking here in terms of cryptographic
strength, such
as key length.
I was reminded of this point as I have just finished Simon
Singh's "The Code Book". This is now 5-6 years
old, but on p308-9 he
states that in the USA there are no restrictions on key
size,
compared to restrictions which exist on crypto software
exported from
it, as US software companies are still not allowed to export
strong
cryptography.
Hence "browsers exported to the rest of the world can
handle only
short keys, and thus offer only moderate security". He
states, as an
example, that because of this restriction, the crytographic
security
of buying a book online in, say, the UK would be "a
billion, billion,
billion times less secure" than buying it within the
USA.
I realise, as Singh states, that the cost of attacking such
a less
securely encrypted credit card transaction would be no doubt
be much
greater than the typical limit on the card, but does his
point still
pertain in 2006, or have things changed since 1998-9 when he
wrote
the book?
Is a secure online transaction in the UK still really so
much less
secure (at leats in algorithmic terms) than one in the USA?
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