Layman's explanation for limits on escrowed encryption ...

Mark M. markm at voicenet.com
Mon May 27 22:50:10 PDT 1996


On Fri, 24 May 1996, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:

> 	Hmm.... what were the normal key-length recommendations again? This
> appears to imply that the NSA can break at least 64-bit, and probably 80-bit,
> encryption. How does this translate into public key lengths? E.g., how many
> normal bits is a 1024-bit PGP key equivalent to?
> 	-Allen

The normal key-length recommendation was 96 bits.  64 bits and 80 bits are
equivalent to 512 bits and 768 bits respectively.  I would guess that a
1024-bit key is about as strong as an 96-bit key.  The first two numbers are
from _Applied Cryptography_; my estimate is an extrapolation from the data in
AC.

-- Mark

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markm at voicenet.com              | finger -l for PGP key 0xe3bf2169
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"The concept of normalcy is just a conspiracy of the majority" -me


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