[3345] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
German court: DES is no good
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Gutmann)
Tue Sep 22 22:44:09 1998
From: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz (Peter Gutmann)
To: cryptography@c2.net
Reply-To: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
X-Charge-To: pgut001
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 14:31:41 (NZST)
http://www.thestandard.net/articles/display/0,1449,1780,00.html
German Court Ruling Another Blow To U.S. Encryption Standard
By Mary Lisbeth D'Amico
MUNICH - A German district court has ordered a bank in Frankfurt to repay a
customer 4,543 marks (US$2,699) for money withdrawn from her bank account
after her bank card was stolen.
The decision, made public Monday, again points to the holes in the 56-bit
encryption technology used in Eurocheque cards, called EC Cards, according to
the Chaos Computer Club, a German hackers group.
Calling the encryption technology for the EC bank cards "out-of-date and not
safe enough," a Frankfurt District Court held the bank responsible for the
amount stolen from the 72-year old plaintiff in February 1997. Neither the
bank's name or that of the plaintiff were revealed.
An EC card is like a bank card which can be used at bank automats and
point-of-sale terminals throughout Europe. The cards feature the U.S.
government's data encryption standard, which uses 56-bit encrypted code to
scramble the security information.
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