Re: Can we kill single DES?

[Declan McCullagh <declan@eff.org>]

On Wed, 2 Oct 1996, Adamsc wrote:

> >1. Is this a good idea? What will happen if DES becomes perceived
> >    as insecure?
> 
> That's Declan's department (and other non-clueless journalists - declan is
> just the most visible).   If it get's widespread and the target is something
> like Digicash, it'd get picked up by the Crime/Snoozeweek crowd.

This is the meme I've been trying to spread -- that 56-bit DES is *not*
secure. This cuts through all the rhetoric about differences between key
recovery and key escrow, who's going to be in this industry alliance, etc. 

Bottom line: it sucks; your data are insecure; don't use it. That 
argument is one jlists can understand.

And I think I've been successful. Tomorrow's issue of a popular
newsmagazine may mention just this.

-Declan


// declan@eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan@well.com //