Steve Whitney speaks on export control

On March 24, 2014 CryptoWorks21 hosted Steve Whitney, VP & Divisional General Counsel, Devices & Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry. Mr. Whitney spoke about export control, particularly as it applies around quantum cryptography technologies.

Exporting quantum cryptography solutions from Canada will be a crucial step in successfully commercializing the technology and providing it the widest possible deployment. At the same time, attendees learned that exporting any new technology presents a series of legal and administrative challenges that must be met before doing business abroad. Mr. Whitney was able to provide several anecdotes from his time at BlackBerry to provide attendees examples of issues that could cause delays when exporting cryptographic technology. Illustrated examples ranged from the seemingly mundane (e.g., how to label software version numbers) to the current global geopolitical considerations.