From the AEGIS e-Journal, Volume 8 Number 6, June 2005
Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard Matt Curtin Springer-Verlag ISBN: 0-387-20109-2 280 pages $25.00 http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-102-22- 45347046-0,00.html 1-212-460-1500 For roughly twenty years, DES was the standard for encryption. It was felt by cryptographers that this 56-bit system was, in theory, too easy to crack. Of course, there is a difference between theory and practice, and when DES was put into place a supercomputer would have been needed. With the passage of time, however, computers became more and more powerful, and, with the arrival of the Internet, it became possible to coordinate the distribution of workload where the solution to a problem involves the same program run many times with different data. That is to say, if a solution requires the same program to be run 10,000 times, it can be run 10,000 times on one machine, a thousand times on ten machines, and ten times on a thousand machines. Brute Force describes the breaking of an unbreakable DES encrypted message by a cooperative effort among many users, on tens of thousands of machines. The book is well-written and interesting, but is useful in a larger sense in at least two other areas. First, it gives the reader some idea of how encryption works, why it is important, and why strong encryption should be readily available. It also makes clear why encryption algorithms should not be “secret.” And it explains why it is better to have good encryption than to prevent it from being widely available. Second, it gives the reader some idea of how powerful distributed processing can be. As a non-encryption-related example, we know of an investment bank whose yearly pricing model in the SWAPS and derivatives department took over six months to run. Actually, it was, in fact, habitually interrupted about then, and never ran to completion. By, er, acquiring the user IDs and passwords of every UNIX workstation on the system, the pricing model was made to run over a weekend, allowing it to be run weekly, not yearly, which in turn gave a competitive advantage. Since encryption is such an important topic these days, this book provides some interesting background, an interesting story, and a lot of good food for thought, even for those not interested in encryption per se. ÆGIS, June 2005 10 7. Subscription/Unsubscription/Copyright Information •• ÆGIS is supported and maintained by voluntary efforts. This publication is owned, published, and copyright © 2005 by The LUBRINCO Group Ltd, Inc. and Financial Examinations and Evaluations, Inc. It is edited jointly by Richard Isaacs (RBIsaacs@lubrinco.com) and L. Burke Files (LBFiles@feeinc.com). 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LUBRINCO identifies and quantifies threats and vulnerabilities, and their associated risk, then manages the vulnerabilities so you can transfer or live ÆGIS, June 2005 11 with the residual risk. We prevent disastrous financial loss to your company, and physical harm to you, your family, and your staff. For information on LUBRINCO and its services, or for the archive of all past issues of ÆGIS in PDF format, please go to http://www.lubrinco.com/. Subscription to ÆGIS is available for $15 per year in North America and $20 per year outside of North America. To sign up for a complimentary subscription to ÆGIS or the ÆGIS PDF notification list, go to http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/subscriberprefs?customerid=7768 or send an email to aegis@lubrinco.com. To subscribe to our AvantGo channel, go to http://avantgo.com/channels/_add_channel.pl?cha_id=1773 To be removed from the subscription list, follow the instructions on the mailing you received, or send an e-mail to aegis@lubrinco.com. 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Article Title, from the June 2005 ÆGIS (© 2005 LUBRINCO & FEE), to be found at http://www.lubrinco.com/. ÆGIS, June 2005 12 ÆGIS is a forum for the exchange of information, ideas, operating styles, theories, and related topics for corporate managers who make decisions about threats typically outside the expertise available in-house, yet which have the potential to affect their company’s domestic and international bottom lines. Nothing appearing in ÆGIS should be construed as legal advice. The information provided is “general information,” not “specific advice.” The solution to any problem is highly dependent upon the precise facts involved. Thus, before making any reliance upon anything said here, you should consult with an appropriately skilled professional. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily endorsed by the publisher, and may be presented to encourage a dialogue among subscribers. The publisher and any re-publisher cannot be held responsible for any loss incurred as a result of the application of any information published in ÆGIS. Please be safe, and be smart.