[870] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
RE: DES cracking is making real progress
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Informati)
Tue May 20 16:24:54 1997
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 15:34:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security" <PADGETT@hobbes.orl.mmc.com>
To: nelson@media.mit.edu
CC: cryptography@c2.net
>This is doing more harm than good. The more weeks go by the more people are
>going to assume that DES is fine
A couple of weeks does no really matter IMNSHO, nor does the number of
machines required, what matters is whether or not a DES code is broken
at all. Once that happens, confidence will be lost.
What the media will ammounce is the breaking - the effort required will be
lost on the inside page unless it is so large that the collection of
computers becomes a story in itself. How the release is worded will decide
what spin the media puts on it.
If the intent is to affect DES then the actual numbers of computers/number
of cycles to break should not appear in the release at all, simply that
a collection of PCs working part time was able to decode the message. Just
depends on what message you want to send.
Warmly,
Padgett (UDA)
"We've decided that, what we are discussing now is the price." - punch line
