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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                       
                      DESCHALL Group Searches for DES Key
                                       
   Sets out to prove that one of the world's most popular encryption
   algorithms is no longer secure.   
   COLUMBUS, OH (April 9, 1997). In answer to RSA Data Security, Inc.'s
   "Secret Key Challenge," a group of students, hobbyists, and
   professionals of all varieties is looking for a needle in a haystack
   2.5 miles wide and 1 mile high. The "needle" is the cryptographic key
   used to encrypt a given message, and the "haystack" is the huge pile
   of possible keys: 72,057,594,037,927,936 (that's over 72 quadrillion)
   of them.   
   The point? To prove that the DES algorithm -- which is widely used in
   the financial community and elsewhere -- is not strong enough to
   provide protection from attackers. We believe that computing
   technology is sufficiently advanced that a "brute-force" search for
   such a key is feasible using only the spare cycles of general purpose
   computing equipment, and as a result, unless much larger "keys" are
   used, the security provided by cryptosystems is minimal. Conceptually,
   a cryptographic key bears many similarities to the key of a typical
   lock. A long key has more possible combinations of notches than a
   short key. With a very short key, it might even be feasible to try
   every possible combination of notches in order to find a key that
   matches a given lock. In a cryptographic system, keys are measured in
   length of bits, rather than notches, but the principle is the same:
   unless a long enough key is used, computers can be used to figure out
   every possible combination until the correct one is found.   
   In an electronic world, cryptography is how both individuals and
   organizations keep things that need to be private from becoming public
   knowledge. Whether it's a private conversation or an electronic funds
   transfer between two financial institutions, cryptography is what
   keeps the details of the data exchange private. It has often been
   openly suggested that the US Government's DES (Data Encryption
   Standard) algorithm's 56-bit key size is insufficient for protecting
   information from either a funded attack, or a large-scale coordinated
   attack, where large numbers of computers are used to figure out the
   text of the message by brute force in their idle time: that is, trying
   every possible combination.   
   Success in finding the correct key will prove that DES is not strong
   enough to provide any real level of security, and win the first person
   to report the correct solution to RSA $10,000.   
   Many more participants are sought in order to speed up the search. The
   free client software (available for nearly every popular computer
   type, with more on the way) is available through the web site. One
   simply needs to follow the download instructions to obtain a copy of
   the software. Once this has been done, the client simply needs to be
   started, and allowed to run in the background. During unused cycles,
   the computer will work its way through the DES keyspace, until some
   computer cooperating in the effort finds the answer.   
   If you can participate yourself, we urge you to do so. In any case,
   please make those you know aware of our effort, so that they might be
   able to participate. Every little bit helps, and we need all the
   clients we can get to help us quickly provide an answer to RSA's  
challenge.
   Contact Information     * Media Contact
       Matt Curtin +1 908 431 5300 x295       <cmcurtin@research.megasoft.co
m>
     * Alternate Contact
       Rocke Verser, Contract Programmer, +1 970 663 5629
       <rcv@dopey.verser.frii.com>     * Web Site
       http://www.frii.com/~rcv/deschall.htm     * Mailing List
       deschall@gatekeeper.megasoft.com
       To subscribe, send the text subscribe deschall to
       <majordomo@gatekeeper.megasoft.com> and you'll be emailed
       instructions.     * RSA Data Security Secret Key Challenge '97 Site
       http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/97challenge/