Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!sei.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!bg11+ From: bg11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brian E. Gallew) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: Trojan version of VIRUSCAN version 78 Message-ID: Date: 3 Jun 91 18:14:09 GMT References: <1991May16.175841.761@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> <1991May25.044559.26080@syacus.acus.oz.au> <1991May28.175016.21398@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de>, <1991May30.122409.15797@cbnewsj.att.com> Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 24 In-Reply-To: <1991May30.122409.15797@cbnewsj.att.com> In regard to what Dave writes about NSA and the crippled DES: Try reading "The Cuckoo's Egg" (sp?) by Clifford Stoll (sp?). The NSA is just wonderfully helpful ;-> with all sorts of computer problems. NSA needs no excuse, and in my opinion, (for what it is worth) is inexcusable! And for anybody who doesnt' know, DES is basically a simple substitution code. What makes it copmlicated is that instead of a 26 letter alphabet, it substitutes for 13 letter blocks; in other words, ~75^13 letter alphabet! (26 Uppercase, 26 Lowercase, 10 digits, plus punctuation) As applied to computer data, it is even worse; 256^13 letter alphabet! Have a nice day. -Brian You drop the bomb -more- It goes off... -more- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am *NOT* as think as you dumb I am!! | This space for rent (241-6939) -------------------------------------------------------------------------