From: Tom Weinstein <tomw@netscape.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 13:02:51 +0800
To: Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: A better DES challenge
In-Reply-To: <199706232004.QAA11706@nsa.research.att.com>
Message-ID: <33AF4D42.D971824@netscape.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Lucky Green wrote:
> 
> At 06:15 PM 6/23/97 -0700, Mike Duvos wrote:
>> Really.  It appears that the DESCHALL frivolities actually
>> enhanced the reputation of DES, fluffy press releases by C2 and
>> Security Dynamics notwithstanding.
> 
> Which is why I opposed a distributed crack ever since the crack was
> first proposed. But once the crack got underway, the only thing to do
> was to participate and hope it wouldn't take all that long. Stressing
> the individual that found the key over the group effort was the best
> thing that could be done in an already bad situation. Spin control is
> a fact of life.

IMHO, it would have been better to emphasize the group effort, and that
they could continue to crack keys at a rate of one every 30 days even
if the computing base didn't continue to grow.  Not to mention that they
could also be cracking 40-bit keys at a rate of about 2000 a day.

-- 
What is appropriate for the master is not appropriate| Tom Weinstein
for the novice.  You must understand Tao before      | tomw@netscape.com
transcending structure.  -- The Tao of Programming   |