Encryption Software Ssshhh... John Kennedy will say this only once... Heard of the clipper chip? It's the US government backed cryptography system which they want every one to use. It's extremely secure, but not to the US government who designed a back door into it, and are therefore able to crack it. Not everyone is happy with this arrangement, and there are several programs which use the so-called 'public key' methods for encoding messages. In fact, government agencies don't like this (they like to know what's going on - but only for our own good, of course) and tend to get shirty when someone writes a program that they can't crack. The most famous of these programs is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), which is available on a wide variety of computer platforms. There are commercial programs which will achieve the same aim (with better and worse results), and now there is one for the Amiga. The program doesn't actually have a name (it's known as RSRSA20 to its friends), and it requires an Amiga with a 68020 or better and a printer in order to operate. As far as the documentation goes... oh dear. The spiral bound tome bears an uncanny resemblance to a university thesis, even going so far as to have some photocopied performance graphs included at the back. The text is a shambles of cryptic anecdotes, general notes of security, sometimes contradictory ramblings and an extremely poor tutorial section. There is no denying that sections makes a very interesting read, but as an instruction book for a software package it sucks. For a product which is designed to make encryption a tool for business and personal use, it falls flat on it's face. Students of cryptology will find it both fascinating and frustrating - there are no reference or bibliography sections. The software is tediously written to ignore all the niceties of the Amiga operating system, and instead of a Windows, menus and requestors based system opens a single un-movable window, driven solely by function key presses. In use it is un-necessarily complicated. However, this isn't an arcade game which requires flashy graphics - it's a tool for taking a text file and ensuring no-one else can read it. It is (apparently) an implementation of the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman algorithm, which means it offers a Class B security system; "uncrackable by any large multi-national company, but might be broken by a national intelligence agency prepared to commit several months and £50,000+ to the task". The author can provide a Class A system if required for additional cost. The software costs £200 for the Class B system, and £500 for a Class A system. Now, here I have a problem. There is simply no way that I can test if the claims of this program are correct. Like the author, I have a masters degree (I wonder if he got his in cryptology with this as his thesis?), but unfortunately mine is not in mathematics. To sit down and work through the appendix on number theory would take me a while, and at the end of it I still have no guarantee that the program is actually based on the maths. On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge at least, the author seems to know what he is talking about. He claims that the program is one of the most powerful software based systems available to the public, and also hints that dark forces (that is, Scotland Yard) may be interested in his plans - so obviously you should buy now before you need to arrange visiting rights. The public domain program PGP is probably adequate for anything that I will need to send, but if you do need to move sensitive material around, contact the author. Encryption Software £200/£500 A1200, A4000, A3000 Mr N. Hensor, 86 Teignmouth Road, London, NW2 4DX Ease of Use 50% A great step backwards for Amiga software. Effectiveness 90% I don't know, but I'm prepared to trust the author. Value for money 70% How much could you loose if your data fell into another's hands? This is your measure of value for money. Flexibility 60% Only encrypts plain text, and only a file at a time. Innovation 80% Whether due to paranoia, or a genuine desire to maintain freedom of speech, programs like this should be given recognition. Overall 70% One of the most difficult to review programs ever. Poor implementation of what could be an essential concept. picture: code.iff Caption: The encryption software uses key-press driven screens to navigate between the different sections. Some are as unfathomable and the text it encrypts.