Information Security News mailing list archives
Re: Business spy threat is real, former CIA chief says
From: "Robert G. Ferrell" <root () rgfsparc cr usgs gov>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 09:37:02 -0500
The new algorithm recently approved by the U.S. Commerce Department, for example, is so strong that it would take an estimated 149 trillion years to unscramble, he said.
It would have have taken us > 14 years to get to the moon and back, too, if we had walked. Is that 149 trillion years for a team of expert cryptographers using 2,000 of the fastest CPUs currently in existence, or 149 trillion years for one chimpanzee using an abacus and an infinite supply of bananas? Numbers like "149 trillion years" presented in the absence of some sort of context are worse than meaningless--they're dangerously misleading. Or so it seems to me. RGF Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP Information Systems Security Officer National Business Center U. S. Dept. of the Interior Robert_G_Ferrell () nbc gov ======================================== Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed. ======================================== ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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- Business spy threat is real, former CIA chief says William Knowles (Oct 18)
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- Re: Business spy threat is real, former CIA chief says Robert G. Ferrell (Oct 19)