July 10, 1997
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Nikkei English News via Individual Inc. : (Nikkei Industrial Daily, July 8, 1997)
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said it has developed a software program which can be used to evaluate the security of various symmetric-key encryption algorithms, where the sender and recipient share the same key.
The program analyzes a given encryption technology and displays the amount of computing power required to deduce the key and decrypt the message.
Secure and practical data encryption is a necessary technology for the popularization of electronic money and electronic commerce. Mitsubishi's program could end up becoming an index by which to objectively evaluate the many new symmetric-key encryption methods being developed.
The software combines the differential decryption method developed by Israeli encryption expert Adi Shamir with Mitsubishi's proprietary linear decryption method. By attempting to deduce the key with simple approximations of the encryption algorithm, the program determines the minimal volume of computations needed to crack the code, and also shows how long the key should be in order to make decryption nearly impossible.
Mitsubishi said it has also finished development of a software program which uncovers the key based on the pattern of random numbers generated in the course of encrypting a message.
The next step for the company is to combine all three decryption methods into a comprehensive program for evaluation. Working with support from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the company hopes to finish and publicize its program by next spring, providing it free of charge to users. (More)
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