mdr@reed.UUCP (02/05/87)
The following is from Electronics, February 6, 1987 and is reproduced without permission (I hope they don't mind). Project Overtake - a partnership formed almost two years ago between the National Security Agency and 11 electronics companies to develop a series of standard embedded communications security, or Comsec, devices - is nearly a year behind schedule. At the programs's inception, the NSA had estimated that upwards of 85% of all future telecommunications security needs would be met by these devices. However, Phase I of the program is scheduled to end in March with few, if any, products in sight - and spokesmen for several companies say no products will appear before late 1987. Windster, the project's proposed line of embeddable modules for encryption of digitized voice and low-speed data signals, is still in the design cycle. Under consideration is the development of the Mini Windster, a cut-down version of Windster. Another product line, called Foresee, intended to provide high-speed digital data streams at all classification levels, has been downgraded from a government-classified program to a commercial-version status and renamed Brushstroke. The main reason product development is moving so slowly, according to several companies participating in Project Overtake, is that the communications and computer security market remains unclear and difficult to define. A recent market study by EIA's Government Division [Electronics, Jan.22 1987, p.95] indicates there's another problem: resistance within the Defense Department to embedded security products, primarily because of concern about how they will fit into currently installed systems [????]. The NSA is expected to ask the 11 companies in March for a memorandum of understanding on yet another new peoduct - Indictor, a secure hand-held radio. -- Reed College -- Portland, Oregon -- 503/774-9192