wayner@cello.cs.cornell.edu (Peter Wayner) (01/11/91)
My Theory: DES should be unreadable by the Soviets, but if they or a third-world country should use it, it would be nice if we could read the text. But: 1) The Soviets have good mathematicians. 2) The Soviets (and the Third World) lag in computer technology. Therefore use a technological barrier. Make the cipher very strong, ( a paper by Biham and Shamir at Crypto 90 suggests that they did this), but weak enough so a very expensive (>$5,000,000) massively parallel machine could barely attack it with brute force. The result is that poor, but smart mathematicians won't stumble on any trap-doors you've hidden and only the rich nations form a threat. (Which they did any ways.) Peter Wayner Department of Computer Science Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY 14850 EMail:wayner@cs.cornell.edu Office: 607-255-9202 or 255-1008 Home: 116 Oak Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850 Phone: 607-277-6678