C2Net Software Thwarts US Encryption Policy

[sameer <sa...@c2.net>]

For Release March 24, 1997
C2Net Software: Douglas Barnes +1 510 986 8770
UK Web: Dave Williams +44 113 222 0046 

	     C2Net Software Thwarts US Encryption Policy
     Products Provide Uncrippled, Secure Framework for Worldwide
		Net Commerce, Intranets, and Extranets

Oakland, CA -- C2Net Software, Inc., and UK Web, Ltd., announced today
the 1.0 release of a new product, "SafePassage Web Proxy." This
product, developed entirely outside of the United States, provides
full-strength, non-escrowed cryptography for users of any standard
web browser.

No weak codes

"We don't believe in using codes so weak that foreign governments,
criminals, or bored college students can break them," said C2Net
President Sameer Parekh, "we also oppose plans to put all your
cryptography keys in a few places, where they can be sold to the
highest bidder by traitors like Aldrich Ames. Some companies are
starting to release products that use this so-called 'key recovery'
technology, but this will only create fat, tempting targets for
hackers and spies -- and they're still restricted to short key
lengths, such as 56 bits."

Current "export" versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet
Explorer use a weak cipher that has been broken by online groups, such
as the "Cypherpunks." Companies like HP and IBM, bowing to government
pressure, have been promoting seemingly innocuous "key recovery" plans
that would require centralized key storage and easy government access
to -- or abuse of -- cryptography keys.

SafePassage Web Proxy Fortifies Browsers

SafePassage is an enhancement for "export" browsers, an add-on product
that works with any standard web browser. Acting as an intermediary,
or proxy, it intercepts weakly encrypted connections on their way out
and transforms them to use full-strength cryptography.  "The weak
connection never leaves your PC," explains Parekh, "it gets decrypted
and then re-encrypted with a full-strength cipher."

"This is part of our overall strategy to provide strong cryptography
world wide," said Parekh, "SafePassage is an add-on for web browsers,
and Stronghold, our web server, can be used as an add-on for existing
servers. Our plan is to offer a complete line of products for securing
Internet communications in this fashion."

Some examples of how SafePassage can be used:

  o  A multi-national corporation can use SafePassage to secure 
     a far-flung Intranet that travels over insecure channels. 

  o  Overseas banks can distribute SafePassage to their 
     customers, to ensure that their transactions are secure and 
     private.

  o  Internet Service Providers can provide SafePassage as part 
     of the startup package to new users, so that they can 
     connect securely to commercial sites around the world.
   
"We're still learning new ways that folks would like to use
SafePassage," commented C2Net VP Douglas Barnes, "the response during
the beta period has been overwhelming."

"SafePassage is the perfect complement to the Stronghold web server,"
said Mark Cox, Stronghold Product Manager for UK Web. "we've been
marketing the international version of Stronghold with full strength
cryptography for six months now, but we knew we would need matching
strong cryptography on the browser side as well.  SafePassage Web
Proxy answers this need."

Details

SafePassage provides secure connections using strong cryptography for
any browser that supports standard SSL tunneling, a feature normally
used by firewall software. It currently runs on Windows 3.1, Windows
95, and Windows NT.

Evaluation versions of SafePassage can be downloaded at no cost from
UK Web's site at: http://stronghold.ukweb.com/safepassage/. It is
currently unavailable for distribution within the US and Canada, but a
domestic version will be made available in the near future. A single-
user license is $49, prices for volume licensing start at $995 for
fifty users.

Background

UK Web Limited is a leading Internet services company specialising in 
server technology, Internet security, business solutions and effective 
site design.

C2Net is the leading worldwide provider of uncompromised network 
security software.

Netscape Navigator and Netscape Enterprise are trademarks of Netscape
Communications Corporation. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft
Internet Information Server are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Stronghold and SafePassage are trademarks of C2Net Software,
Inc. Portions of Stronghold were developed by the Apache Group, and
are taken with permission from the Apache Server. Stronghold and
SafePassage include portions developed by Eric Young.