[bmw]

Fascinating article on the history of digital encryption ...

"When IBM submitted DES as a standard, no one outside the National Security Agency had any expertise to analyze it. The NSA made two changes to DES: It tweaked the algorithm, and it cut the key size by more than half. [...]

It took the academic community two decades to figure out that the NSA "tweaks" actually improved the security of DES. This means that back in the '70s, the National Security Agency was two decades ahead of the state of the art."

http://news.com.com/Saluting+the+data+encryption+legacy/2010-1029_3-5381232.html?part=rss&tag=5381232&subj=news.1029.10

[socomm]

Yuk, CNet. If you're into Crytopgraphy, and who isn't, checkout Crypto, by Steven Levy from your local Library. Pretty good read, sans the adverts.

[bmw]

Yeah, yeah, it's CNet. But the article itself is by Bruce Schneier, and you can't more cred than that.

[Kernel_Killer]

Yeah. Have to give it up for Bruce Schneier. author of the best Crypto book ever, Applied Cryptography.