From: Anonymous Subject: Re: Ladder DES Date: 23 Feb 1994 03:52:08 GMT Organization: Michigan State University Lines: 18 NNTP-Posting-Host: scss3.cl.msu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] Terry Ritter (ritter@cactus.org) wrote: : To maintain earlier levels of security, DES must be replaced with : a stronger cipher. The one obvious alternative to DES is a simple : construct built from DES called triple-DES. Triple-DES, while : generally being thought of as "strong enough," also carries the : baggage of requiring three times the processing of normal DES. Another, already somewhat widely used alternative is RSA Data Security's "DESX", as implemented in their commercial products MailSafe and BSAFE since 1986/87. DESX is ordinary DES with pre- and post-processing to expand keysize and security. Like Ladder DES, it is faster than triple-DES. I have some reason to believe that RSA may be willing to allow use of DESX free of licensing fees. Perhaps someone from RSA would comment? Mark R