From: jungletrain@outlook.com   
      
   On Wednesday, November 13, 1996 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Anonymous wrote:   
   > Date: Wed, 06 Nov 1996 12:14:41 -0500   
   > To: "Vladimir Z. Nuri"    
   > From: John Young    
   > Subject: Re: FOR_tun    
   > Fortune, November 11, 1996, pp. 172-82.   
   >    
   > Techno-Hero or Public Enemy?   
   > James Bidzos of RSA Data Security wants to go global   
   > with a potent shield against computer break-ins. Uncle   
   > Sam's most secretive spy agency wants to stop him. At   
   > stake is the right to privacy and the health of the   
   > U.S. software industry.   
   > By David Stipp    
   >    
   > If you work with a computer, chances are that embedded in   
   > your machine is a nifty little piece of software that FBI   
   > Director Louis Freeh calls a terrorist tool. Made by RSA   
   > Data Security, the software is woven into some 90 million   
   > copies of various applications, from Netscape browsers to   
   > Lotus Notes to products from Microsoft. Few, if any,   
   > programs are as ubiquitous. Yet RSA's software is so   
   > powerful that, as recently as October, it was classified   
   > as ammunition under U.S. laws that restrict arms exports   
   > -- along with cruise missiles and Stealth bombers.   
   > RSA is spreading everywhere for the same reason that the   
   > federal government doesn't want it to: It can thwart your   
   > enemies, whoever they are. Its power springs from   
   > encryption, which scrambles data sent over phone lines or   
   > stored in computers so that only those holding secret   
   > numerical "keys" can get access. Law enforcers fear it   
   > will be used to block them from eavesdropping on   
   > evildoers. But it also can stop bad guys from hacking   
   > into your company's computers, or stealing your credit   
   > card number if you shop on the Web. The tabloids would   
   > never have known Princess Diana was "my darling Squidge"   
   > to her secret amigo if she had used a cellular phone with   
   > encryption.   
   > As RSA's astronomical installed base attests, its   
   > software has become a de facto standard for safeguarding   
   > computer bits. If you have a Netscape Web browser, note   
   > the key icon in the lower left-hand corner of your screen   
   > -- it means RSA is inside and will leap to protect your   
   > credit card number when you electronically order things.   
   > As the Internet burgeons, so do applications for RSA. It   
   > protects the confidentiality of medical records exchanged   
   > by doctors via the Net and safeguards signals piped from   
   > video cameras at nuclear sites to an international agency   
   > monitoring atomic weapons.   
   > Indeed, RSA has quietly become to software what Dolby is   
   > to audio: the trusted brand most every vendor wants   
   > inside. The expected explosion of electronic commerce   
   > promises to multiply its licensees even faster. By 2000,   
   > International Data Corp. estimates, $78 billion of   
   > purchases will be made annually via the World Wide Web.   
   > RSA aims to keep all those cyberbucks honest by stamping   
   > electronic documents with "digital signatures" enabling   
   > online merchants to check that customers are legitimate   
   > (see box).   
   > Positioning RSA to be the key provider of trust in   
   > cyberspace, CEO Jim Bidzos recently did a strange thing:   
   > He decided not to make an initial public offering. Wall   
   > Street had been eagerly anticipating an IPO; last spring   
   > *ComputerLetter*, a New York City newsletter aimed at   
   > high-tech investors, called RSA the "poster-child of the   
   > networked future." Investment bankers during the recent   
   > Internet IPO craze estimated that an RSA offering would   
   > raise a hefty $300 million, says Bidzos. Not bad for a   
   > firm with 50 employees and 1995 revenues of $11.6   
   > million.   
   > But ignoring the bankers hot advances, in February he   
   > negotiated RSA's purchase for stock by Security Dynamics,   
   > a Bedford, Massachusetts, maker of computer-security   
   > devices. Completed in July, the $259 million merger is   
   > aimed at marrying RSA's software with Security's hardware   
   > to make the picks and shovels of the cybercommerce gold   
   > rush. For example, says Bidzos, who remains head of RSA   
   > in Silicon Valley, fraud-resistant smart cards that carry   
   > everything from digital cash to medical records.   
   > Bidzos maintains that the companies' synergy will give   
   > RSA more value than an IPO would have. Swept up in the   
   > speculation surrounding Internet stocks, Security   
   > Dynamics' share price has gyrated between $109 and $51.25   
   > since the merger was announced. Today Wall Street seems   
   > to agree with Bidzos that dominance in the security niche   
   > makes the company a choice Internet play: The Security   
   > Dynamics shares swapped for RSA were recently worth some   
   > $330 million. Analysts expect earnings to be around $23   
   > million on sales of $113 million next year, up from a   
   > projected $12 million on $74 million in sales in 1996.   
   > For Bidzos, 41, a former programmer with a standup   
   > comic's irreverence and wit, steering RSA against   
   > prevailing winds is almost second nature. For years he   
   > had little choice. After being named CEO of the fledgling   
   > company in 1986, he sought venture funding in vain. He   
   > recalls, "I would sit in meetings with venture   
   > capitalists, and somebody would say, 'Let me get this   
   > straight. There's no market for your technology, but   
   > you're going to try to create one by promotion. And the   
   > world's largest intelligence agency wishes you didn't   
   > exist, but you're just going to beat them at that game.   
   > Okay, it's been nice talking to you.' "   
   > Bidzos could hardly deny that the U.S. National Security   
   > Agency considers his company a loose cannon. The NSA,   
   > which declined comment for this story, was created   
   > secretly in 1952 to conduct electronic eavesdropping on   
   > foreign powers. It has sought to keep a lid on   
   > hard-to-break ciphers, the antiballistic missiles of the   
   > Information Age. The NSA's attacks often work -- a few   
   > years ago, for instance, it quietly persuaded AT&T to   
   > change its product strategy. But now the lid is being   
   > pried open, largely by software firms using RSA's   
   > programs. And when the NSA has tried to wrap its arms   
   > around the defiant little company, Bidzos has tweaked its   
   > nose and danced away.   
   > In his latest coup, Bidzos announced in June that RSA had   
   > agreed to put its imprimatur on encryption chips by   
   > Japan's Nippon Telephone & Telegraph Corp. The pact   
   > sidesteps U.S. export controls, which block RSA from   
   > developing such chips in the U.S. for the global market.   
   > The NSA is understandably irked. State-of-the-art ciphers   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)