FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

PGP 6.5/PGPnet Announcement!

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Mon, 5 Apr 1999 20:36:52 -0400
To:            cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, cryptography@c2.net
From:          Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject:       PGP 6.5/PGPnet Announcement!


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Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 16:58:51 -0700
From: Will Price <wprice@cyphers.net>
Subject: PGP 6.5/PGPnet Announcement!
To: mac-crypto@vmeng.com
Sender: <mac-crypto@vmeng.com>
List-Subscribe:
<mailto:requests@vmeng.com?subject=subscribe%20mac-crypto>

PGP 6.5 was released today to much fanfare.  This afternoon at the
Network Associates Colliseum "The Net" in Oakland prior to the opening
of the baseball season there, Network Associates announced its Active
Security product line of which PGP 6.5 is the client desktop solution.
 There are a number of exciting new features in PGP 6.5, the
highlights of which are summarized below.  This message is being sent
to the users, and may have more details than our press releases.  For
more information, you may wish to read the long list of NAI press
releases from today.

PGPnet is clearly the lion's share of the additions in PGP 6.5.  The
summary below cannot possibly do it justice.  PGPnet is a complete
IPSec implementation for Windows and Mac.  Total TCP/IP security,
interoperable with other vendors and even interoperable with X.509
certificates and other PKIs.

PGPnet is not just a VPN (Virtual Private Network) solution.  PGPnet
is, to use a phrase that I believe John Gilmore coined, a RPN (Real
Private Network).  It allows secure connections to any other
PGPnet/IPsec host on the internet regardless of whether you have
communicated with that host previously, without preconfiguration of
that host.  If everyone ran PGPnet or another RPN client, the whole
Internet could be secure.  PGPnet supports authentication with OpenPGP
keys, X.509 certificates from the Network Associates Net Tools PKI,
VeriSign OnSite, and Entrust (in beta), and also supports
non-certificate based authentication with Shared Secret where both
parties simply hold a common passphrase.  Unlike TLS/SSL and other
transport layer security protocols, PGPnet sits at the IP layer, and
thus is able to encrypt and authenticate all traffic rather than just
web traffic.  Indeed, PGPnet can even be used to secure third party
videoconferencing apps, file transfers, web sites, email servers, and
pretty much anything you can run over TCP/IP.

Some details:

* Today's announcement coincides with the immediate availability of
PGP Desktop Security 6.5 for Windows NT 4.0 only, and only the Desktop
Security version has been released.  This product is mainly for
enterprise level users.

* The Windows 95/98 and Macintosh versions will ship later this
quarter, Q2 '99 as PGP 6.5.1.  All the usual Personal and Freeware
versions will be available then, and source code will be printed.  All
of the features below are implemented on all the platforms, although
the wording below may be somewhat Windows-specific because today's
release is only for NT.

_____________________
NEW FEATURES IN 6.5.0

1. PGPnet. PGPnet is a landmark product in the
   history of PGP. PGPnet secures all TCP/IP
   communications between itself and any other
   machine running PGPnet. It is also fully
   interoperable with the Gauntlet GVPN gateway
   providing a complete solution for corporate
   remote access VPNs using the industry standard
   IPSEC (Internet Protocol Security) and IKE
   (Internet Key Exchange) protocols. It is also
   interoperable with other IPSEC products that
   implement the standard.

2. Self-Decrypting Archives. You may now encrypt
   files or folders into Self-Decrypting Archives
   (SDA) which can be sent to users who do not
   even have PGP. The archives are completely
   independent of any application, compressed
   and protected by PGP's strong cryptography.

3. X.509 Certificate and CA Support. PGP is now
   able to interoperate with the X.509 certificate
   format. This is the format used by most web
   browsers for securing the transfer of web pages.
   PGP supports the request of certificates from
   Network Associates' Net Tools PKI, and VeriSign
   certificate authorities. X.509 certificates are
   analogous to a PGP signature, so you can even
   request X.509 certificates on your existing
   PGP key. This feature can also be used to
   interoperate with existing VPN solutions based
   on X.509.

4. Automated Freespace Wiping. PGP's Freespace Wipe
   feature now allows you to use the Windows Task
   Scheduler to schedule periodic secure wiping
   of the freespace on your disk.  On the Macintosh,
   this feature is implemented through AppleScript
   support.

5. Hotkeys.  The Use Current Window feature has been
   significantly enhanced by the addition of Hotkeys.
   By pressing the configured key combination, the
   Encrypt/Decrypt/Sign functions can be
   automatically invoked in 0 clicks without
   using PGPtray.  On the Macintosh, this feature
   adds the ability to use Command key equivalents
   to PGPmenu.


--
Will Price, Architect/Sr. Mgr., PGP Client Products
Total Network Security Division
Network Associates, Inc.
Direct  (408)346-5906
Cell/VM (650)533-0399
<pgpfone://cast.cyphers.net>


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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44
Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve
respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the
world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon,
'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'