THE COMEDY OF COMMERCIAL ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE
Martin Kochanski · Cryptologia · 2004
Cryptographic programs are unique among software packages in that users have no way of verifying their security. In the late 1980s we analysed seven leading programs and found them all to be breakable. The suppliers' reaction is instructive: no attempt was made to make the algorithms more secure, but instead great PR effort was dedicated to denying that their insecurity mattered. These events marked a watershed in the move towards industry-wide standards for encryption algorithms.