The ageing Data Encryption Standard (DES) is no longer secure enough for use by government and should be replaced by Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) instead, according to a key US government standards agency.
The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) yesterday proposed to withdraw the Federal Information Processing Standard for DES, effectively pensioning off the venerable old algorithm. Interested parties have until 9 September to respond to NIST's retirement plans.
DES has been a key US government (and therefore industry) security technology since 1977 but now its beginning to crack up - it just can't keep up with these whippersnappers in Unis with their new, fancy computers. NIST notes that DES is now vulnerable to brute force attack - thanks to advances in parallel computing.
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News source: The Register
