Path: utzoo!yunexus!unicus!rae From: rae@unicus.UUCP (Reid) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Re: Request for opinions: canadian cryptographic standard. Summary: Is tweaking existing standards enough? Keywords: des canada nsa us Message-ID: <2414@unicus.UUCP> Date: 22 Mar 88 21:03:02 GMT Article-I.D.: unicus.2414 Posted: Tue Mar 22 16:03:02 1988 References: <2463@geac.UUCP> <17654@watmath.waterloo.edu> <2475@geac.UUCP> Reply-To: rae@Unicus.COM (Reid Ellis) Organization: Unicus Software Inc. Lines: 15 daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) writes: | The concern here is the easy availability of chipsets for doing |parallel brute-force attacks on the encoded data. Not the |algorithm proper's security. Given that we are not going to keep the algorithm secret, could we just tweak an existing standard [DES?] such that it renders existing hardware solutions for that standard incompatible with our spiffy Canadian version? And if we do this, is the demand for Canadian secrets [how much money does Wayne Gretzky make?] so low that no-one will bother to design and implement hardware to crack such a 'tweaked' version? --- Reid Ellis "Howdy, howdy!" 176 Brookbanks Drive, Don Mills, Ontario M3A 2T5, Canada (416) 446-1644