European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 1, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Asa plan to unlock computer secrets Cox news service the super secret National Security Agency worried Abou eavesdropping by foreign Powers is Quilty prodding Banks and businesses to in place the widely used coding system they Fety on id protect their most sensitive computer communications l inc Agency s Loans Are founded Tho soviet Union and Solhei countries May he in a position now or in the near future to intercept decode and 5loro extensive personal dossiers on millions of unsuspecting americans with material such As banking records and medical data however some computer exports doubt Hal such a threat Emils and they Are sceptical of inc Asa s proposed solution unlike the present coding system the new one would he controlled by inc Goncy. That has prompted charges Hal the proposed switch is a Lucily a ploy to enable Salo intercept Rind Unicof Amble Ncry plod messaged sent within private Industry they want to read the mail reclaims  Security consultant Flo Herl Courtney former director of a la of Rutily Lor ism corp Fjeld in Fate Nous another Security consultant agrees adding i Don t Tuisl Hal Bunch As far As i could throw the Nohrr Crew " critics of the Asa plan say hint i placing the coding  n unnecessary and could require a Llimos c dollars for new equipment a Cri it Hal a would he in Sud on to consumer1 Saihe nation s la Geril intelligence Pirjani Alion. Is a Branch of the f Unla Cjon responsible Lor conducting worldwide electronic surveillance and preventing the interception of sensitive communications sent within the government and private Industry. An Mesa spokesman said no Agency Olli Cial would comment for this Story. At Issue is a Little publicized Asa plan to replace the data encryption Standard Des a decade old system or encoding computer  that is used throughout the world the Des consists of two parts. The first is a publicly available equation called an algorithm that scrambles the message. The second is an electronic key of up to 56 digits which used by Bolh Tho sender and recipient enables the message to be locked and 1 unlocked " used together the key and the Algol he allow a message to be scrambled in millions of different ways making it virtually impossible to decipher regardless Asa officials have hinted Hal the Des is in danger of being cracked by the soviet Union and possibly other foreign Powers. Ono Way this could theoretically be done computer experts say is through what is known As a brute Force attack using a Bank of powerful computers working simultaneously to decipher an electronically intercepted message. Harold Daniels Asa s Deputy director of information Security wrote to an electronics research firm last Spring asserting thai the widely used Des algorithm has became an increasingly attractive Large for our adversaries. Therefore we have determined thai it is in the . Interest to introduce new cryptographic  a two part code protects sensitive computer communications used t y Banks and businesses. To addition to being user within the a Deral government to encode sensitive information Des is widely used by financial institutions and companies including those which hold . Defense contracts Asa using Powers granted by a 1984 presidential directive has already begun mandating that some Federal agencies abandon Des and switch to a now family of algorithms beginning Jan 1, 1988. Asa has said it also wants Many private businesses and Hanks it is unclear How Many to switch by Hal Date. A number most notably the major Banks Are Balking some Don t believe the Des code is in danger of being cracked. We have asked Asa Lor evidence that somebody has broken that the Des and no one has come Torch with any evidence to prove Hal says Geoffrey Turner the communications Security manager or the California based Bank of America de Zeiter who holds a similar Post at Security Pacific Bank in los Angeles agrees that the Des remains cryptographically  adds Courtney i Don t think hey Asa have any basis Lor that but it s a Good thing to hint at. How else would you lustily replacing Des there Are also concerns Hal switching to now algorithms would be costly. We Don t want to be put in the position of throwing out sizable investments in Oes technology prematurely says Turner adding we have a responsibility to shareholders to not spend Money unwisely. To addition there is growing concern among Banks and private businesses Over indications thai Asa would Issue not Only the new algorithms but also the keys for the coding system that would replace Des presently the Des algorithms Are publicly available and the keys Are devised by the individual Banks or corporations. Ai an added Security measure the private firms frequently change Dekeys ii Asa knows both the algorithms and the keys to unlock them experts say the Agency will be Able to electronically intercept and decipher a vast array of confidential information. This could include Domestic and International funds transfers Between financial institutions communications Between automatic Teller machines and Bank computers As Welt As personal medical data transmitted from one office to another by insurance firms that process medicare claims. You can imagine How a company like that would feel about Asa which is a part of the department of defense somehow being involved in telling them How to run their Dala processing says Courtney who helped design Des in the 1970s when he was with ism. La s  to the Asa adds Menkus there is never any such thing As enough information la s become an obsession with them that there Are All sorts of things going on behind their Back that they should know  a Commilles of the american Bankers association has hold several meetings in Washington with Asa s Daniels about the Agency s Effort to replace Des. We re making some real Progress says Zeiter a member of the Bankers panel. The two sides Are to meet again in october but several Bank representatives on the panel Are already predicting that Asa will allow them to delay the switch for a minimum of several years. But Turner notes that the Asa plan to replace Des extends beyond Banks. Everybody is affected by this he says. Banking spoke up first because we recognized the Impact on us immediately. Bui others have raised  among others concerned Are private manufacturers Oldes equipment who fear they will lose business if dts is declared dead we re dead says an official with an electronics firm in suburban Washington. The uncertainty Over the Furlum of Des has slowed Down the marketplace for Des technology explains Turner not As Many products Are coming Forward now due to the uncertainly. At the same  he adds a lot of companies Are holding Bach and waiting to see How the wind s going to blow before they invest in any Des  Page 16 the stars and stripes