6 January 2000. Thanks to C.S-H.
Source:
http://members.aol.com/infowelt/bidzos.html
(DE)
See related revised draft of US crypto export regulations: http://cryptome.org/bxa121799.htm
Translation by Cryptome with Systran.
Originally published in c't, Germany, November 1999
Jim Bidzos serves in the USA as a visionary for IT security. The head of RSA Security, a founder of Verisign as well as shareholder of Cybercash and Netscape, he has involved himself among other things as a director of EPIC to successfully oppose the initiatives of the US Government to develop the Clipper chip and, when this policy was defeated, to later promote of key recovery. With resistance against US crypto policy the success of the firm grew. Bidzos prepares now, a few weeks before the publication of the final export controls, to conquer the European market.
RSA was created in 1982 by three professors at MIT: Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman. The firm was named after the first letters of their surnames. Christiane Schulzki Haddouti spoke for c't with the 45-year-old manager.
c't: RSA came into the market in the middle of the 80's when hardware solutions had not become generally accepted and your software solutions could be used more cheaply and more easily.
Bidzos: Yes. But I did not know at that time exactly what I should do. RSA had decided at that time to make a chip with RSA encryption. However there was never a market for that chip. Some years later we focussed entirely on software. We locked in our first contract in July 1986 with Lotus. They already manufactured Lotus Notes at that time. They wanted to secure transmission of Notes e-mail and to be able to communicate with servers. That was then our first and only license for encryption software.
c't: Did you have anything to do with the decision of Lotus to give a part of its keys to the notorious NSA?
Bidzos: No. That was a decision of Lotus. They used a 64-bit-key and gave 24-bits of the key to the government. We do not set certain conditions for our customers, how they are to use our software. I personally thought that for Lotus that was a somewhat unfortunate history. That was however only one of many compromises in which the US firms got involved.
c't: What do you now expect from the announced export relaxation of the US Government?
Bidzos: I am carefully optimistic. On the one hand the announcement of the export relaxation sounded extremely positive. On the other hand we have for the first time a proper professional group of lobbies named ACP (Americans for Computer Privacy). Financially they are very well equipped.
c't: Are they also supported by you?
Bidzos: Yes, we support them. ACP has the best lobbyists in Washington with connections to all possible government levels. Microsoft, Intel, Apple, IBM and other supporters have invested a quantity of money in ACP which is used to keep pressure on the government. Today it is ACP which negotiates with the government about the detailed implementation of export policy. They are still arguing about details but I have the feeling that we will get what we need.