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From: outer@utcsrgv.UUCP (Richard Outerbridge)
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: DES Cracked at Waterloo?
Message-ID: <2725@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Nov-83 21:43:51 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.2725
Posted: Mon Nov 14 21:43:51 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Nov-83 01:10:10 EST
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 35

From the TORONTO STAR, Afternoon Edition, Mon. Nov. 14th 1983, page A3.

	"3 Waterloo professors crack 'unbeatable' computer code"

KITCHENER (CP) - Three University of Waterloo professors have cracked
a computer security system developed for the United States government
and considered unbeatable by U.S. experts.
	"Their success has raised concerns that less well-intentioned
individuals may also gain access to vital computer information.
	""Most banks are not using security for daily transmissions,"
said Ian BLAKE, one of the professors.  "It's...hard for a company to
know they've been robbed."
	"BLAKE, Ron MULLIN and Scott VANSTONE, under contract to the
Canadian government, which wanted to adopt a computer security system,
began working on breaking the U.S. code 18 months ago.
	"The security system, known as the DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD,
was developed by IBM Inc. in the 1970s.  It scrambles messages at one
end of a conversation between computers and unscrambles them at the
other.  Security lies in passwords needed to interpret a message.
	"The passwords, a combination of characters programmed into
computers or installed on a computer chip, can be frequently changed.
	"So many passwords are possible that the system's creators
thought it would take 1,000 years for a computer to find the right one.
	"The Waterloo trio learned to break the code IN AN HOUR.  U.S.
experts are trying to devise a system with longer passwords to outflank
the professors' work."	
	(emphasis ADDED)	= 30 =

Welll, if the Canadian Press has got it right - remember the article
quoted a couple of weeks ago about a Galois Field PubKey being cracked
at Waterloo by the same people - it looks as though the sceptics have
the last laugh after all.  Can anyone at Waterloo comment on these reports?

Richard Outerbridge	..!utcsrgv!outer	U of Toronto CSRG