From: Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 11:25:35 +0800
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Subject: Re: Data Sources for DES Breaking
In-Reply-To: <199607242051.NAA13352@netcom5.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199607250219.VAA03426@homeport.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


	This did not happen when cypherpunk Hal Finney posted a
message and challenge; everyone saw that resources were assembled, and
the key was cracked.

	What I see as more likely than 'did/did not' is the
Netscape-style assertion that the computer time used cost N million
dollars (Ok, NS claimed the compute cycles were worth $10,000.)

	As such, the analysis needs to be presented in light of the
fact that 3des would take 3 times as long to encrypt, and take 2**56
times as many dollars worth of compute power to decrypt.  To put that
to scale, if the computer power to break des is one cent, the federal
debt (5 trillion) wouldn't get you close to breaking 3des.

	Or IDEA takes roughly as long to encrypt, and is even
stronger.  And available to forigners, since it was invented, and
patented, in the free world.

Adam

Mike Duvos wrote:

| If a lone Cypherpunk simply encrypts a file with DES-ECB, hides
| the key in a drawer, and publishes the cyphertext and plaintext
| for use in a distributed cracking effort, there will of course
| be the suggestion that the exercise was rigged, and any public
| policy implications will be lost in the endless "Was So/Was Not"
| quibbling which will undoubtedly take place after the crack is
| complete.

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume