Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!rutgers!bellcore!faline!thumper!karn
From: karn@thumper.bellcore.com (Phil R. Karn)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: Request for opinions: canadian cryptographic standard.
Message-ID: <1003@thumper.bellcore.com>
Date: 23 Mar 88 21:16:14 GMT
References: <2463@geac.UUCP> <17654@watmath.waterloo.edu> <2475@geac.UUCP> <8529@reed.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 15
Summary: math can overcome brute force

> >  The concern here is the easy availability of chipsets for doing
> >parallell brute-force attacks on the encoded data.  Not the
> >algorithm proper's security.

Brute force attacks get a lot of attention only because existing
algorithms like DES are marginally susceptible to them. However, if you
design a proper algorithm with a large enough key size (say 128 bits,
like the original Lucifer) then brute force attacks are clearly out of
the question no matter how fast the technology gets in our lifetime (or
many lifetimes, for that matter).

Again I'd much rather place my trust in mathematics than bet against
advancing technology.

Phil