As companies became interested in data encryption to protect trade secrets in the 1950s and 1960s, the regulation of the industry was slow to adapt, Professor Rivest said. The first data encryption standards were not adopted until 1976, and academic study of encryption was not widespread before the 1980s. In an article published in the October 1998 issue of Scientific American, Professor Rivest proposed a more relaxed attitude towards encryption. Allowing encryption to be widely available would fuel international trade and communication, and bolster consumers' confidence in purchasing goods and services online, he said. Since the mathematical basis for encryption is already widely known, serious criminal organizations and terrorist states are already able to implement the technology, and export restrictions serve only to slow the legal commercial application of this useful technology.
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