Cryptographers will be burning the midnight oil over the next few weeks as
they pore over SKIPJACK, an encryption algorithm just declassified by the US
National Security Agency. The algorithm lies at the heart of the 鈥渃lipper chip鈥�,
the electronic encryption system that the US government hoped would be adopted
as an industry standard.
The scheme never took off, because many organisations didn鈥檛 like the idea of
the numerical keys needed to break the code being held by the US government.
Cryptographers hope the algorithm鈥攅ssentially the 鈥渓ock鈥� opened by the
keys鈥攚ill provide clues into the thinking of a notoriously secretive
organisation.