Weak Win2k Encryption Exposes Al-Qaeda Files

[Terr]

Hmm. Either they never expected anyone to get their hands on it, using the encryption in a less serious way (In other words, to deter the casual), or they were stupid, or they intended the computers to be found...

Some have suggested that the reason that DES was made an open standard, and then the NSA and FBI began whining about export control, was so that people would adopt DES, thinking that the NSA couldn't crack it. (Because they didn't want it exported.) In reality, as the theory goes, DES was ALREADY crackable or had a hidden weakness, and it was all a trick to get possible enemies of the state to use DES...

[cwk9]

Yup the government can tear through 128bit encryption faster then a fat lady with a bag of chips. I use 448 bit encryption, it makes for long keys but at least you don't have to worry about the government cracking it in a weekend.

[draziw]

Originally posted here by Merlinboy
Hmm.....this is really stupid to use 40bit encription ,especially from al-Qaeda,but anyway probably those weren't such important data,or who knows?

Wonder about how they got electricity in to those caves to run the machines...

Originally posted here by cwk9
Yup the government can tear through 128bit encryption faster then a fat lady with a bag of chips. I use 448 bit encryption, it makes for long keys but at least you don't have to worry about the government cracking it in a weekend.

Ummm... 448? Yeah... I think their weekend's still spared at that point - Friday night, after the beer bash... want something a bit more secure - perhaps 2048?

Then again, most people protect their keyfiles with suitably weak keys, so the overall security of the encyption is significantly weakened, anyway (ie. it doesn't matter if you use an insanely long key to protect data if the keyring is only protected with a simple password).