Jerry Leichter wrote:
...
accurately states that AES-128 is thought to be secure within the state
of current and expected cryptographic knowledge, it propagates the meme
of the "short key length of only 128 bits". A key length of 128 bits is
beyond any conceivable brute force attack - in and of itself the only
kind of attack for which key length, as such, has any meaning. But, as
always, "bigger *must* be better" - which just raises costs when it
leads people to use AES-256, but all too often opens the door for the
many snake-oil "super-secure" cipher systems using thousands of key bits.
Oh, say it ain't so! ;-)
In the NBC TV episode of /Chuck/ a couple of weeks ago, the NSA cracked
"a 512-bit AES cipher" on a flash drive "trying every possible key".
"Could be hours, could be days." (Only minutes in TV land.)
http://www.nbc.com/Chuck/video/episodes/#vid=838461
(Chuck Versus The Fat Lady, 4th segment, at 26:19)
It's no wonder that folks are deluded, pop culture reinforces this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
