"Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com> writes:
100% correct. Although DES is likely breakable by brute force, that can only be done at tremendous expense. The back door notion, although still possible, is now not believed to be true.
People first thought there was a back door because they wouldn't release enough info on the algorithm to give people a chance to see if they trusted it or not. After it was all common knowledge, people examined it and came to the conclusion that it was secure, though questions are still around about why it was changed from 64 bit to 56 bit, which is also why it is believed that the NSA has computers that can break it by brute force in a reasonable amount of time, but nevertheless it is a brute force attack. That's how I've heard (from various sources) the whole story with DES goes, and it seems like a reasonable one. -- Mike Sherwood internet: mike@EGFABT.ORG uucp: ...!sgiblab!egfabt!mike