There is an interesting article in Federal Computer Week http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0910/news-nsa-09-10-01.asp that says NSA planning a major effort to modernize the nation's cryptoystems "which are rapidly growing obsolete and vulnerable." They quote Michael Jacobs, head of NSA's information Assurance Directorate as saying the the underlying encryption algorithms are nearing the end of their life expectancy.
There were hints in the past that NSA used 90-bit keys for some ciphers. I wonder if that is the issue or if they see the quantum computing handwriting on the wall and plan to go to 256-bit (or larger) keys. Arnold Reinhold --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]