The planning of cryptographic solutions for messaging and electronic commerce applications in the United States during the past few years has been motivated by a high level of interest in the technology on the part of potential users. It has been marked by a high level of controversy over algorithms, patent rights and escrow policy. The diverse needs of the government and commercial sectors have led to mutually exclusive solutions based on different algorithms and policy; this phenomenon is fairly unique to the United States. Because of the strong requirement to preserve the differences that make these solutions unique for the two environments, the near-term evolution of a single standard appears unlikely. Furthermore, the need on the part of some government agencies and some commercial establishments exists to operate in both environments. This paper deals with the technical definition and design approach to a dual-use cryptographic device and the migration paths to the dual-use device from both environments. Such a device is further considered as a component of a secure cryptographic translation facility.

Date Published: 12 March 1996
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 2616, Information Protection and Network Security, (12 March 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.232257

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2616:
Information Protection and Network Security
Viktor E. Hampel; Clifford B. Neuman; John Perry Barlow, Editor(s)