worldwide-survey-of-encryption-products.pdf
A Worldwide Survey of Encryption Products
Bruce Schneier Berkman Center for Internet & Society Harvard University
schneier@schneier.com
Kathleen Seidel Independent Researcher
kathleenseidel55@gmail.com
Saranya Vijayakumar Harvard College
svijayakumar@college.harvard.edu
Data security is a worldwide problem, and there is a wide world of encryption solutions available to help solve this problem. Most
of these products are developed and sold by for-profit entities, although some are created as free open-source projects. They are
available, either for sale or free download, all over the world.
In 1999, a group of researchers from George Washington University attempted to survey the worldwide market for encryption
products [HB+99]. The impetus for their survey was the ongoing debate about US encryption export controls. By collecting
information about 805 hardware and software encryption products from 35 countries outside the US, the researchers showed
that restricting the export of encryption products did nothing to reduce their availability around the world, while at the same time
putting US companies at a competitive disadvantage in the information security market.
Seventeen years later, we have tried to replicate this survey.
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