At 01:41 AM 1/30/97 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:

I think we do need to get some sort of push going for 3DES as a replacement for DES - it's strong enough, even though DES is showing its age, and it's an obvious transition from the current technology. It's slower and clunkier than IDEA or RC4/128, but still not bad.

The migration to 3DES is underway, at least in the banking sector. ANSI X.9, the group that deals with many of the protocols used in the banking industry, has made tremendous progress. 3DES, elliptic curve, and a host of other improvements all are out of committee and should be available as official (for bankers :-) specs soon, if they aren't already. -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred "I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence." Mahatma Gandhi