Info Request

[Stephane Roger]

Hello

I currently work as a free lance consultant in the field of IT management. I
have a functional understanding of encryption technologies and authentication
protocols (SSL, PKI and late SET
)
I am gathering information on the dynamics of encryption protocols market and
derived software applications market. (e.g digital signature applications in an
ERP environment).
I would really appreciate you could provide me with guidelines or directions on
the following topics:
1. What is the general business landscape of authentication protocols today?
(market drivers, knowledge sources (maths and technology integration),
stakeholders, vendors, customers, service providers, etc..)
2. Does US federal regulation on encryption (i.e strong authentication)
mechanisms impose to companies developing and/or implementing such technology
to provide access (or to publish) to the source of the encryption mechanism
implemented (e. g access to a “root key” that would be used to sign
authentication certificates)?
3. If yes, do these regulation apply to US based (registered) companies (vendors
and clients?) only? Does it apply to any company implementing the related
technology?
4. How do these specific regulation constraints influence the business
development (especially export) of these US vendors (as compared with a Swiss
based vendor for example)?

Thank you very much in advance for your help and guidance in this matter.

Sincerely


Stéphane ROGER
e-mail : roger.stephane at free.fr