The Day DES Died

Everyone knows how important it is to encrypt private or sensitive data as it transfers over the public Internet. There are several different types of encryption including symmetric, asymmetric, and hash algorithms. Key lengths of 1,024 bits and cipher strength of 128 bits are to be used at minimum. We know this because DES, previously known as a U.S. Department of Commerce standard, has been broken during the course of public challenges sponsored by RSA Security. How was DES broken? How do you know what cryptosystems work? Which ones are best? This paper won't answer all those questions, but it will take a closer look at DES. The characteristics of the RSA challenges will be discussed. Finally, we'll compare DES to other cryptosystems to discover which ones are secure and why. Understanding more about this long-term standard encryption algorithm may help to secure implementations of cryptography in your environment. I hope that you'll find this paper interesting and a little fun too!