About Symmetric Ciphers.

[Johan Wevers]

Werner Koch wrote:

> The OpenPGP WG agreed on 256 Bit.  I don't like it but some folks
> might think this is better for marketing.  The probelm that I have
> with it is that it requires more of those precious random bytes while
> not giving any extra security - there are so much other parts which
> actually limit the strength of the encryption (Rubber hose attacks,
> Weak passphrase, 1024 DSA signatures to bind the key,...) 

Except from the rubber hose attacks it might be usefull for symmetric
encryption only. I store some files encrypted but only encrypted with
a symmetric key. I don't see the need for the asymmetric cypher for
personal archival purposes.

-- 
ir. J.C.A. Wevers         //  Physics and science fiction site:
johanw@vulcan.xs4all.nl   //  http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/index.html
PGP/GPG public keys at http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/pgpkeys.html