[2179] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: The secret message is...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rick Smith)
Wed Feb 25 15:06:31 1998
In-Reply-To:
<6B5344C210C7D011835C0000F8012766010035DD@exna01.securitydynamics.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 13:05:06 -0600
To: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei@securitydynamics.com>, cryptography@c2.net
From: Rick Smith <rsmith@securecomputing.com>
Cc: markham@securecomputing.com
This is really interesting information. Without the results of these folks
getting together and solving this problem, we civilians wouldn't have a
handle on how much work is *really* involved in cracking a real crypto key.
My office mate immediately pulled out pencil and paper to compute the cost
to crack a single DES key. Assuming the computing equivalents are correct,
the processing power required equals 68,859 Macintosh PowerPC 604e/200s.
Using the MacWarehouse catalog sitting on my desk, I find that they're
offering 604e/200 clones for $52 a month. So, here's the math:
68,859 (Macs for a month) * $52 (per month leasing)
= $3,580,668 to crack a single DES key
VERY interesting statistic. It reminds me of the punchline of that old,
sexist party joke: "We've already established what you are, now we're just
quibbling about your price."
Rick.
rsmith@securecomputing.com Secure Computing Corporation
"Internet Cryptography" at http://www.visi.com/crypto/ and bookstores
