For people younger than ~37, I'd remind them that crypto before 2000, especially in shipped commercial products, was playing under substantially different government restrictions.
Effectively and in short, you were prohibited by the US government from shipping strong encryption in any internationally distributed product. Which generally meant everything commercial.
Despite open source implementations of strong encryption existing (e.g. PGP et al.).
Now, no one bats an eye if you ship the most secure crypto you want. Then, it was a coin flip as to whether you'd feel the full weight of the US government legal apparatus.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_Wars
Effectively and in short, you were prohibited by the US government from shipping strong encryption in any internationally distributed product. Which generally meant everything commercial.
Despite open source implementations of strong encryption existing (e.g. PGP et al.).
Now, no one bats an eye if you ship the most secure crypto you want. Then, it was a coin flip as to whether you'd feel the full weight of the US government legal apparatus.
It was a crazy, schizophrenic time.