New Crypto Technique Could Challenge DES

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October 23, 1997, TechWeb News

New Crypto Technique Could Challenge DES
By George Leopold

NEC said Wednesday that it will release details early next year about a new encryption technology it claims could offer an alternative to the U.S. Data Encryption Standard (DES). NEC of Japan said its stronger and speedier approach is based on a technique that generates numerous fake keys and a scrambling algorithm that "stirs" text and keys to confuse illegal decryption. The method also doubles the key length to 128 bits.

DES was recently cracked in a so-called brute force attack by a network of several thousand computers working continuously for 92 days. A bigger problem, NEC researchers said, is many algorithms developed since DES was adopted in 1977 closely resemble the standard, adding to data security problems.

NEC said it will release details of its encryption technology at the 1998 Symposium on Cryptography and Information Security that opens Jan. 28 in Shizuoka, Japan.