Data Encryption Standard

  Data Encryption Standard The Legacy of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) The world of cryptography has witnessed tremendous advancements over the decades and one of the pivotal milestones was the introduction of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) in the 1970. Developed by IBM and standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) DES set a new benchmark for secure data communication. Though now considered obsolete DES’s impact on cryptographic practices remains profound. What is DES? The Data Encryption Standard is a symmetric key block cipher that encrypts data in 64-bit blocks using a 56-bit key. It employs a Feistel network structure processing data through 16 rounds of substitution and permutation to transform plain text into cipher text. At its inception, DES offered a practical blend of security and computational efficiency making it the federal encryption standard for several years. How DES Works DES employs several key mechanisms to ensure encrypt...