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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • There was a limit on key strength at 40 bits. Americans were allowed 56 bits (OK, they didn’t really get the full 56 bits, but that is another story). The Electronic Frontier Foundation built “Deep Crack” in 1998, a custom machine that broke the 56 bit DES in two seconds, so it probably would have taken them 1/8 second to crack the 40 bit. This happened when the ban was still active.

    This led to two movements: creative export and hosting of >40 bit algorithms outside the US, and development of better algorithms outside the US, like Rijndaal, SERPENT, IDEA, E2, and other non-US AES-candidates.











  • And it’s even worse. They only eat some kinds of Eucalyptus. They found this out with a koala in a zoo. They supplied him with fresh branches, but refused to eat them. All while trying to get to some eucalyptus tree right next to his cage. They gave him a branch from that tree, which he devoured.

    Turned out that the tree next to the cage and the one where they got the food from were different genetic variants of eucalyptus trees that are indistinguishable for normal humans.