Re: DES

["Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com>]

Jamie Jamison says:
> 
> Two questions about DES. 
> 
> 1) If the current, 56 bit, DES system is so easy to break why don't people
> switch over to a DES system that uses a larger key space, say 128 bits?
> People obviously aren't, so what's the barrier to this? 

DES only takes 56 bit keys.

> 2) How much longer would it take to break triple DES versus standard DES
> using one of the key-breaking machines described? 

Using brute force, it would take the cube of the time it takes to break
single DES. Whether a more sophisticated techinque is possible is unknown.

Perry