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These people never learn, do they? The 56-bit DES encryption could be cracked in less than 24 hours several years back. 40-bit encryption should be just a piece of pie now. 
Motorola
The exercise in reverse engineering by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and RSA Laboratories in Bedford, Mass., shows that "an attacker with modest resources—just a few hundred dollars" of off-the-shelf equipment—can crack the codes of millions of car keys and the stubby wands that trigger the pumps at ExxonMobil gas stations, the team reports in a draft article posted Jan. 28 on the Internet (http://www.rfid-analysis.org/).
"There is a practical risk here," says team member Ari Juels of RSA, the company that created an encryption technique used throughout the Internet.
"There is a practical risk here," says team member Ari Juels of RSA, the company that created an encryption technique used throughout the Internet.
By using only 40 bits and relying on the cleverness of their cipher, the transponder designers went wrong, says Rubin. After breaking the cipher, which was a major challenge met by trial-and-error methods and cryptographic expertise, "we just tried all possible keys," he says.
"This is a warning that you can't take shortcuts on the design of these systems," comments Internet-security specialist Steven M. Bellovin of Columbia University.
"This is a warning that you can't take shortcuts on the design of these systems," comments Internet-security specialist Steven M. Bellovin of Columbia University.
Motorola
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