Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard

Description

In the 1960s, it became increasingly clear that more and more information was going to be stored on computers, not on pieces of paper. With these changes in technology and the ways it was used came a need to protect both the systems and the information. For the next ten years, encryption systems of varying strengths were developed, but none proved to be rigorous enough. In 1973, the NBS put out an open call for a new, stronger encryption system that would become the new federal standard. Several years later, IBM responded with a system called Lucifer that came to simply be known as DES (data encryption standard).The strength of an encryption system is best measured by the attacks it is able to withstand, and because DES was the federal standard, many tried to test its limits. (It should also be noted that a number of cryptographers and computer scientists told the NSA that DES was not nearly strong enough and would be easily hacked.) Rogue hackers, usually out to steal as much information as possible, tried to break DES. A number of "white hat" hackers also tested the system and reported on their successes.

Still others attacked DES because they believed it had outlived its effectiveness and was becoming increasingly vulnerable. The sum total of these efforts to use all of the possible keys to break DES over time made for a brute force attack.In 1996, the supposedly uncrackable DES was broken. In this captivating and intriguing book, Matt Curtin charts DES?s rise and fall and chronicles the efforts of those who were determined to master it.


Contents:

Introduction

1. 90MHZ Pentium

2. Data Encryption Standard

3. Key Length

3.1 Symmetric Cryptography

3.2 Codes

3.3. Susceptibility to Brute Force Attacks

3.4 Substitution Ciphers

3.5 Asymetric Cryptography

4. RSA Crypto Challenge

5. Law Enforcement Concerns

6. Supercomputer

7. Show Me the Code

8. Project Follows Code

9. Organizing DESCHALL

10. Announcing DESCHALL

11. Getting Attention

12. Front Running

13. Haystack

14. Clients

14.1 Verser DES Key Search Method

14.2 More Speed for Intel

15. Architecture

15.1 Boot Disks

15.2 Client Management

15.3 Dialup Users

15.3.1. Dialup in Windows

15.3.2. Dialup in OS/2

16. Every Machine Counts

17. Competition

18. Summer Vacation

19. 100% CPU

20.Transition

21. Requests

22. Perseverance

23. Network

24. Download

25. SolNET

26. Get Off Your Duff

27. Short Circuit

28. Media

29. Volume

30. Too Much Is Never Enough

31. Proposal

32. In the Lead

33. Recruit

34. SolNET Drops Off

35. Threats

36. Crypto News

37. Rivalry

38. Overdrive

39. Disturbed

40. Back Door

41. Second Stage

42. Obstacle

43. DESGUI

44. Export

45. Keeping It Together

46. Getting Word Out

47. No DESCHALL Here

48. Schedule

49. SolNET Stumbles

50. A Few Hundred Clients

51. New Statistics

52. Bitslice

53. Crypto Battle

54. SolNET Recovers

55. Server Outrage

56. SGI

57. Netlag

58. Terminal Velocity

59. Photoshoot

60. Integrity

61. Workaround

62. Morale

63. Strong Cryptography Makes the World a Safer Place

64. Talking Head

65. Effect

66. Saying the Course

67. Five Years Later

68. Next Steps

68.1 Other Stuff

A DESCHALL Press Release