News
Cryptologists Allege Flaw in PGP
- By Scott Bekker
- 03/21/2001
Cryptologists in Prague say they found a flaw in PGP, the most common encryption algorithm for securing e-mail messages, according to a report today by the New York Times.
U.S. security experts could not judge the seriousness of the flaw in PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy, until the technical details become available, the Times reported.
It appears that anyone who wanted to break the PGP encryption using the vulnerability would need access to the sender’s computer, according to the Times.
An IT firm in Prague called ICZ says its cryptologists found the flaw while doing research on secure communications for the Czech government.
Network Associates licenses PGP. Mark McArdle, vice president of PGP engineering at Network Associates, told the Times he had learned of the claim on Tuesday and had a team of engineers investigating it. –
ICZ’s statement on the issue can be found at http://www.i.cz/en/onas/tisk4.html
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.