THE SECRET'S OUT

An encryption algorithm used by major computer companies was made public on the Internet last week, challenging federally imposed export restrictions for all such programs. RC4, a trade secret of the Silicon Valley-based RSA Corp., was posted on the Usenet newsgroup "sci.crypt" and sent via the "Cypherpunks" electronic mailing list. The implications are serious, but they don't involve security, experts say. RC4 is set up so that the user supplies an encryption and decryption key. However, the posting poses a challenge to the heavy government restrictions in this area. "This demonstrates that export controls on encryption are futile," Daniel Weitzner, deputy director of policy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TIME Daily. Weitzner maintains that the rules have stood in the way of the development of an international standard for encryption.