Last nail for US crypto export policy? (fwd)
Robert S. Thau (rst@ai.mit.edu)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 13:29:31 -0500 (EST)
> -> > January 28, 1997 - Ian Goldberg, a UC Berkeley graduate
> -> > student, announced today that he had successfully cracked RSA
> -> > Data Security Inc.'s 40-bit challenge cipher in just under 3.5
> -> > hours.
> -> >
> -> > Goldberg's announcement, which came just three and a half hours after
> -> > RSA started their contest, provides very strong evidence that 40-bit
> -> > ciphers are totally unsuitable for practical security. "This is the
> -> > final proof of what we've known for years: 40-bit encryption technology
> -> > is obsolete," Goldberg said.
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this will have any effect at all on
US crypto export policy, whose aim is precisely and avowedly to try to
make sure that people *don't* get access to encryption technology that
might prove a challenge to someone with access to a half million
dollars' worth of stock hardware...
rst