Hewlett-Packard Co has added Japan to the list of countries to which it can export its VerSecure strong encryption technology. VerSecure uses encryption employing keys of 128 bits in length and HP can also use triple-DES encryption in its product as part of the license. US companies need a special export license from the commerce department to export encryption technology employing keys greater than 56 bits in length. Japanese companies on the other hand have no such restrictions placed upon them. The technology itself will not be ready until late this fall and will come in the form of a PC card or maybe just a chip. HP has not decided for certain yet or whether it alone will manufacture the part. At the moment the company is getting the export licenses straightened out and is looking for trusted Security Domain Authorities (SDA) to administer and manage the encryption keys. To begin with the authority in Japan will be HP Japan. The company is looking for initially one SDA in each country into which it will export the technology, but says it will probably look to generate some competition in that area and outsource the service to trusted third parties. The other countries for which approval had been granted are the UK, Germany, France, Denmark and Australia. Following the introduction of the technology HP plans to license it to hardware manufacturers to incorporate it into devices embedded in PCs. IBM has already expressed an interest in including it in its SecureWay family of crypto products.
