Swiss Army Encryption Challenge Worth More Than $100K

By Andy Cordial
businesscomputingworld.co.uk
January 21st, 2010

News that am encrypted swiss army knife from manufacturers Victorinox remained uncracked - and a $100,000 prize went unclaimed - at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month comes as no surprise.

Even if someone had cracked the 2010 version of the famous Swiss Army knife, they would have obtained a lot more than $100,000 from other sources.

Victorinox, the manufacturers of the Swiss Army knife, which dates back to the late 1800s in its various forms, has made much of the unit's tamper-proof self-destruct mode, but the reality is that the crypto USB drive supports elliptical curve and AES encryption, which makes it almost impervious to crackers using current known technology.

The reputation of encryption technology has taken a battering with the revelations that the A5/1 and A5/3 crypto systems used on cellular networks have been compromised in the last few weeks, but the elliptical curve and especially the AES systems are still, I'm pleased to report, uncracked.

The AES encryption system is likely to remain uncracked for some time to come, as even Bruce Schneier - the renowned ITsec industry sceptic and researcher - said in his research last summer that "AES-128 provides more than enough security margin for the foreseeable future."