If the contract was signed by digital signatures, a third party can verify that none of the contract has been altered. No matter how strong the encryption scheme is it cannot be considered foolproof. SSL encrypts data at the applications level using RSA Data Security encryption technology. When a customer sends a credit card number, data is encrypted so a hacker cannot see the contents. Netscape's server software can also provide digital signatures to verify the identity of users, and digital hashing to ensure that the messages have not been altered en route.
Many new products are available on the market today and others are in developmental stages.
The NSA is a highly secretive agency of the U.S. government that was created by Harry Truman in 1952. The NSA was created to listen to and decode all foreign communications of interest to the security of the United States. The NSA has tried to slow the spread of publicly available cryptology in order to protect the national interest. In effect, the chip gives a duplicate set of keys to the NSA to read and monitor electronic transmissions. U.S. software publishers were not in agreement with the administration's advocation of the Clipper Chip standard for encryption devices.