PT Thousands of American and Canadian computer users are working night and day to prove that the 56-bit encryption standard set by the United States government is vulnerable. But the effort could take several years. RSA, which dominates the encryption toolkit market, is prompting people to crack the security standard set by the government to demonstrate that the standard is not sufficiently secure. RSA and many other encryption vendors would like the government to raise the standard to approve key lengths of 128-bits.
Key length determines how difficult it is to crack the encrypted data.
Revised U.S. export regulations for encryption that went into effect in January say that encryption vendors can only export technology based on 56-bit algorithms. The rules have been aggressively fought by manufacturers, that say the regulations stifle the ability of U.S. software companies to compete globally. The RSA-sponsored contest is only the latest demonstration against the government's policy. Contract computer programmer Rocke Verser of Loveland, Colorado, is leading the virtual team of computer users trying to crack the 56-bit code. Verser developed software to test the code and has been hosting it on a server since early February.