Re: what does this all mean?

techs@obfuscation.org
17 May 1997 20:36:13 -0000

>5. Finally, not to be a cynic, since I support the effort, but one could
>argue that an encryption key which requires an effort of this scale to
>crack is, by definition, pretty damn secure; i.e. hope the project isn't in
>itself self-defeating.

it has been argued that design and fab costs notwithstanding, a chip could
be built with todays tech to crack a DES key per clock cycle and it could
be clocked around 2GHz. this potential chip has been theorized to come out
to about $50 retail, if it were built.

so no, the scale of DESchall isn't very large.