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Posted by John McGaw on January 13, 2006, 5:38 pm
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> A co-worker was arguing with me last night that 128-bit TripleDES can be
> broken with today's computers. I am wondering if the co-worker was guessing
> or there is evidence that TripleDES can be broken by brute force ?
>
> According to the latest Verisign report, I see that 128-bit encryption key
> would take 0.25 sextillion years to be broken (2005 reports by Yankee
> Group).
>
>
>
It seems that your question contains the answer: at least one authority
says that with 2005 vintage computational resources it can be broken in
0.25 sextillion years. If your co-worker simply said that it "can be
broken" and Yankee Group knows what it is writing about then, yes, it
can be broken, at least if you are willing to wait a while. If your
co-worker said that it can be done in three hours using an unmodified
Playstation then some proof is probably in order.
It seems likely that any form of encryption can be broken eventually
unless one assumes that the universe will dissolve before the process
can complete. But all that is necessary for a "good" encryption system
is that the breaking be so expensive and so slow that by the time the
process is finished the result will be worthless.
John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com
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