🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <herman.725755696@phage> herman@nosc.mil (John W. Herman) writes:
> DES is certainly good eough for any application that does not interest
> a government.  If a government is interested in decrypting any information
> you have, you should consult a professional.  I have no idea how you might
> get in touch with one.

It is likely that there are corporations whose computing facilities and
staff skills are comparable to ``a government'' in this context.  As a
random example, given that (a) they developed it and (b) they have lots
of computers, IBM are probably as capable as the average government of
attacking DES.

This says neither that IBM can attack DES, nor that, if they have the
ability, that they have intention; merely that if attacks exist that
governments can carry out, then there are corporation who are placed
likewise.

[[ If you do want to ship secure data around, and are worried about
governments, generate a floppy disk full of random bits and convey a
copy to your correspondent.  XOR the shipped data and there you are.
You now have a key management problem, but an encryption problem. ]]

ian