From: Marshall Clow <mclow@coyote.csusm.edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 23:00:16 PDT
To: Jonathon Fletcher <jonathon@doemail.sbi.com>
Subject: Re: Quick commercial package question
Message-ID: <v03003704acb381c20617@[204.250.84.3]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Somebody who might be "Jonathon Fletcher" <jonathon@doemail.sbi.com> said:
>
>  There's a compression/archiving package on the Mac call Stuffit.
>
>  Question is - does anyone know anything about the strength or
>trustability of the encryption algorithm used ? It's freely exportable
>from the US (or so I thought) so it can't be DES. Is it (down) on a level
>with the MS Word or Wordperfect ciphers, or is it a little better ? How
>far should I trust it ?
>
Well, that's an interesting question.
On one hand, it's a proprietary encryption algorithm, written by a bright
17 year old.

On the other hand, there have been no reported cracks, no "decrypt your
encrypted archives" programs like there are for MS Word, or WordPerfect.
(Maybe it's hard, maybe no one cares.)
[ Late breaking news: "t byfield" reported one; it appears not to work. ]

On the gripping hand, there was no trouble getting export approval.

Many people/companies put encrypted Stuffit archives up for anonymous ftp.
(Beta versions of executables, etc)

How far should you trust it?
That's up to you.

-- Marshall
Aladdin Systems, maker of Stuffit Deluxe, etc.

Disclaimer:  There is no way that this can be considered an official
statement of Aladdin Systems.

Marshall Clow
Aladdin Systems
mclow@coyote.csusm.edu
Warning: Objects in calendar are closer than they appear.