So Crypto Data is symmetric encryption. And “Key Distribution” is you delivering the key through your coffee klatsch. It’s hard for someone in a foreign country to visit with Syed and just get a key from him and transfer it securely. There may be countries where Crypto Data cannot be legally exported to. The same goes for keys. See note regarding EAR and ITAR.

We certainly can use something like PGP here in the US and have users publish their public keys on a public key server. But this won’t work if you don’t have access to the Internet, or PGP, etc.

–Konrad, WA4OSH