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From: otto@fsu1.cc.fsu.edu (John Otto)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: E-mail Privacy
Message-ID: <1991Jun8.032150.10940@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 91 03:29:08 GMT
References: <51171@prls.UUCP> <1991Jun3.175631.1451@sci34hub.sci.com> <1991Jun4.144731.685@forwiss.uni-passau.de> <1991Jun4.194406.1366@qualcomm.com>
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In article <1991Jun4.194406.1366@qualcomm.com>, rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold) writes...
>In article <1991Jun4.144731.685@forwiss.uni-passau.de> baier@unipas.fmi.uni-passau.de (Joern Baier) writes:
>>From the crypt manual page:
>>CRYPT(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   CRYPT(1)

>Crypt makes use of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), an encryption technology
>that is supposedly unbreakable without spending nearly infinite amounts of
>computer time (although many believe that the National Security Agency
>purposely weakend the specifications to the point where they _can_ decode it).

My readings at the time indicated that the whole purpose of DES is the same 
as Biden's  - to make sure Big Bro doesn't miss anything.  It was 
intentionally weaker than the then state of the art in encryption.