NSA upgrade plans

[Arnold G. Reinhold]

There is an interesting article in Federal Computer Week 
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0910/news-nsa-09-10-01.asp that 
says NSA planning a major effort to modernize the nation's 
cryptoystems "which are rapidly growing obsolete and vulnerable." 
They quote Michael Jacobs, head of NSA's information Assurance 
Directorate as saying the the underlying encryption algorithms are 
nearing the end of their life expectancy.

There were hints in the past that NSA used 90-bit keys for some 
ciphers. I wonder if that is the issue or if they see the quantum 
computing handwriting on the wall and plan to go to 256-bit (or 
larger) keys.

Arnold Reinhold



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