The Upcoming DES Challenge

[Lyle Seaman]

At 11:10 PM 1/7/97 -0000, Liz Taylor wrote:
> I don't know anything about bank ATMs
>and the protocols they use, but I presume the PIN is stored on the card
>single DES encrypted. If this is so, anyone can take an ATM card, attack it
>to recover the key and then use that key to recover the PIN for any stolen
>ATM card of that bank (or that branch). Hopefully, the ciphertext/plaintext
>pair that RSA announces will be a real target like this, with the actual key
>disabled. Once the key is recovered, the press can then claim that ATM
>cards are not safe any longer.

Your self-assessment is admirably accurate, but the presumption is not.