US government updates encryption

The US government has finally bought its 1977 ban on electronic encryption standards over 56 digits long up to date with the latest technology.

After ignoring the vulnerability of the 56-bit Data Encryption Standard for 24 years, the US government has grabbed the newly developed Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to replace its ancient preference.

The government shunned the development and use of any technology that used more than 56-bit encryption as a case of national security, according to Graham Titterington, security analyst at Ovum.

Titterington said: "The changing of this regulation reflects the government's ability to crack these encryptions themselves. They didn't want anyone to use anything they couldn't hack.

"For practical purposes 128-bit encryption has been necessary for at least two years as 56-bit is widely considered to be crackable. Companies that wanted to get around the regulations just set up non-US subsidiaries."

AES provides up to 256-bit encryption technology and is an advance on the more widely 3DES encryption methodology because it economises on the processing and memory needed to encrypt and decrypt messages.

The AES formula - called Rijndael - was developed by two Belgians called Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen according to the US Commerce Department, enabling encryptions of 128, 192 or 256 digits long.