Email Surrender?

[Jerry]

CNN reported this morning that US Officials are in contact with Iraqi Generals via email.

Do you think they use some sort of public/private key authentication?

[Kade P. Cole]

I doubt it, but anything is possible.  :-)

[William Grim]

If it was me I'd use encryption for something so sensitive; I don't want to get bombed even more just because I got my email intercepted and changed, hehe.

However, on the flip side, I'm not sure if the USA would wish to use encrypted emails with Iraq.  I could be wrong, but isn't encryption and the like not for use for Iraq and similar places?  Disclaimer: I'm not a law buff; I'm just asking.

[Gary Mayer]

It's my understanding that the US has intercepted a lot of Iraqi e-mail providing them Command and Control info.  As such, I don't think the Iraqi's are using much encryption.

As for the law regarding encryption export, I think the ban is restricted to strong encryption (like 128-bit) unless waived by some loopholes allowing export to specific countries and company holdings in certain foreign countries.