[Discuss] Good and Bad Crypto

[blu at nedharvey.com (Edward Ned Harvey (blu))]

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Derek Martin
> 

The first AES competition lasted 5 years, up to 2001.  During that time, several openly published ciphers were compared and scrutinized openly, and made available to the public for free.  It is also widely accepted that 3DES is fairly secure.  As a result, 3DES, AES, and the other finalists in the AES competition are the only ciphers you will see used in the wild.  

Ever since cryptographic primitives including block ciphers and secure hash functions became widely available for free, including thorough expert review and vetting and scrutiny, the only such functions used by anybody with a brain are widely reviewed, widely scrutinized, publicly available.  Or experimental submissions for the next AES/SHA/whatever competition.