DES

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DES (Data Encryption Standard) is an algorithm used for encryption which was the official algorithm of the United Sates Government. It was developed by IBM with assistance from the NSA. The algorithm is a sixteen round block cipher which uses a 64bit block and a 56bit key. For each given message, the key is chosen randomly. Like other private key cryptographic methods, both the sender and the receiver must know and use the same private key. The process can run in several modes and involves 16 rounds or operations. A stronger implementation of this encryption is called "triple DES", which applies three keys in succession.