10 July 1997, 
     Nikkei English News (Nikkei Industrial Daily, July 8, 1997):

     ANALYSIS/Program evaluates security of cipher text (1) 

     Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said it has developed a software
     program which can be used to evaluate the security of
     various symmetric-key encryption algorithms, where the
     sender and recipient share the same key. 

     The program analyzes a given encryption technology and
     displays the amount of computing power required to deduce
     the key and decrypt the message. 

     Secure and practical data encryption is a necessary
     technology for the popularization of electronic money and
     electronic commerce. Mitsubishi's program could end up
     becoming an index by which to objectively evaluate the many
     new symmetric-key encryption methods being developed. 

     The software combines the differential decryption method
     developed by Israeli encryption expert Adi Shamir with
     Mitsubishi's proprietary linear decryption method. By
     attempting to deduce the key with simple approximations of
     the encryption algorithm, the program determines the minimal
     volume of computations needed to crack the code, and also
     shows how long the key should be in order to make
     decryption nearly impossible. 

     Mitsubishi said it has also finished development of a software
     program which uncovers the key based on the pattern of
     random numbers generated in the course of encrypting a
     message. 

     The next step for the company is to combine all three
     decryption methods into a comprehensive program for
     evaluation. Working with support from the Ministry of
     International Trade and Industry, the company hopes to finish
     and publicize its program by next spring, providing it free of
     charge to users. (More) 

     [End of article]

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