It's the focus of a debate in Congress. It affects the international software business, and it has implications for privacy and intrusion in the information age. Yet the average PC user hardly gives it a thought.
It's encryption, and Cylink thinks it has found the partner it needs to make files, text, and email easy to hide from prying eyes.
The company has tied its software to a simple, but Cylink believes, potent piece of encryption software from SynData Technologies. That small company makes encryption utility software called SynCrypt, a floating toolbar that lets users encrypt data from Windows applications with the click of a button.
The software will be co-marketed with Cylink's application for shoring up Internet-based company networks, PrivateWire.
"We see in this the ability to deliver to large enterprise customers secure email in a way that smoothly integrates with our extranet application," said John Kalb, Cylink's vice president of business development.
"SynData has taken a quantum leap forward in terms of ease of use."
In other news this week, Cylink said it will submit its SAFER+ encryption algorithm to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for consideration as a free and open encryption standard. The standards body is looking to replace the 20-year-old Data Encryption Standard (DES). The new standard, expected to come within two years, will be called AES, or Advanced Encryption Standard. RSA also made its submission this week, and other companies are expected to follow suit before the 15 June deadline.
Using its SAFER+ algorithm, Cylink says developers will be able to build in encryption that's five times faster than DES.
Cylink also today announced two other security-related products: PrivateSafe and PrivateCard, to let users conducting online banking or purchasing identify themselves with smartcards; and CryptoKit, developer software for building public key management functions into applications.
Comparing its software to the competition, Kalb said the partnership with SynData makes Cylink's approach more universal, and has a better chance of making encryption a routine operation.
"I've looked at PGP [Network Associates' email encryption software], very carefully," he said. "For applications that have plug-in architecture, it's pretty good. But you're limited to email applications that support plug-ins -- [Microsoft] Outlook [Express], [QUALCOMM's] Eudora, Claris [Emailer]."
The advantage of SynData's ubiquitous floating palettes, Kalb said, is that it can apply encryption to any piece of data in any Windows application. The user simply selects the data and clicks an encryption button on the palette.
"This integrates so nicely into a Windows environment," Kalb said.
The partnership also positions Cylink against RSA Data Security's BSAFE encryption software, which allows programmers to integrate encryption into an application.
SynData thinks it's moving users toward a world where encryption isn't even a second thought. "It's got to be easy to use and it's got to be easy to manage.... We've been able to simplify the process to one click -- and hopefully one day it will be simplified to no click."
