Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
April 15, 1999, Thursday
,City Edition
SECTION: ECONOMY; Pg. D2
LENGTH: 123 words
HEADLINE: Bill introduced to ease exports of encryption;
BUSINESS BRIEFS
BYLINE: (Reuters)
BODY:
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to ease strict US
export controls on
computer data-scrambling technologies.
The bill would slightly relax
export controls on
computer encryption products, which use mathematical formulas to scramble information
and render it unreadable without a password or software
"key." With the growth of electronic commerce and global communications over the
Internet, encryption has become an increasingly critical tool for securing
information and an important part of the high-tech marketplace. But US law
enforcement and national security agencies, fearing encryption will be used by
criminals or terrorists, have pushed to maintain strict controls on the
scrambling technology.
LOAD-DATE: April 15, 1999
