EU repeal of export restrictions favors IT-security companies

EU repeal of export restrictions favors IT-security companies Stockholm - 02 April- In mid March the Institute for Strategic Products, ISP, gave clearance for the free export of strong encryption. This change ensures an advantage for Swedish IT-security Company Blueice Research, an integrated part of whose strategy is to spread the free client Multipass. The Multipass can be used to encrypt information in PDA´s or PC´s and the software is available for download from the Internet. Until now the export restrictions have meant that Blueice Research has been forced to control the users nationality in order not to violate Swedish and European rules for "products with double fields of application". Today Blueice Research launches the Windows version of its free client Multipass, available for download at blueiceresearch.com/multipass. Two weeks ago the Palm OS version was released and generated big interest among PDA users. To fulfill the Swedish export restrictions a filter was added to the web page, preventing people outside the EU from downloading the program. Now both the filter and the compulsory registration have been removed. Shortly the Multipass will be available for all major platforms adding Pocket PC, Epoc and Linux adding to the already available platforms. -Strong encryption algorithms are a must today for all working with security solutions. The former rules have been a complicating factor when exporting security software from Sweden. Even though the Swedish authorities have been very helpful in facilitating such export, the new rules mean much better possibilities for putting Swedish solutions on the world market, says Thomas Holmström, CEO of Blueice Research. The Multipass is software for protecting sensitive information using strong encryption and makes sure that only authorized users can access the protected data. This provides an essentially higher degree of security when compared to access protected merely with a PIN-code, in which case the information is not protected with encryption. This is something that lately has been observed by the media. The fact that such an advanced product can be given out free of charge is due to the double usage possibility of the Multipass. The product can also be used when connecting over wireless to different service providers. In this scenario the Multipass stores digital certificates and keys, allowing for strong user identification and the digitally signing of transactions. För more information: Thomas Holmström, CEO, Blueice Research AB, Phone: 08-545 51 880, Mb: 0709- 27 83 20 Pelle Made, Information Manager, Blueice Research AB, Phone: 08-545 51 880, Mb: 0709-27 83 25 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/04/02/20010402BIT00310/bit0002.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/04/02/20010402BIT00310/bit0002.pdf