Shiva software gathers dust after French import mix up

NEWS Shiva's strongest encryption software is piling up in US warehouses while the company awaits import approval from the French government. European markets were expecting a mass rollout, after US authorities granted Shiva approval to export its LanRover VPN suite on 25 November. But an oversight by the distribution team means that French customers will be kept waiting until early next year. Shiva had developed a product with 40bit key encryption specifically for the French market - which does not allow the standard 56bit keys. But the company only applied for a French import licence at the end of September, just three weeks before the product's launch. Eric Beaty, Shiva's European director of VPN Business, said it was "ironic" that the Shiva division responsible for import licences is, in fact, based in France. He told Silicon.com: "Everyone knows that France has tough import regulations on encryption, but it took us a while to find out how to get around them." Beaty placed the blame squarely on SCSSI, the French government agency which regulates software imports. "It's not well publicised how the bureaucracy works," he said, "but the agency is now beginning to get its act together over Virtual Private Network software." Shiva is expecting SCSSI to respond to its application by the end of the year.