Re: PCI Cryptographic Coprocessor Card

[John Earl <john.earl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken,

Sorry, but there is very little value in your Cryptographic  
Coprocessor card these days.  It used the DES & RSA encryption  
algorithms, and DES was shown to be vulnerable to brute force attack  
back in 1999 (that's what prompted the competition for the AES  
encryption standard) and RSA 1024 bit keys have been marked for  
expiration this year (I Don't recall if the 4758 supported 2048 bit  
keys, but I don't that it does).  There is a short blog entry on our  
website (http://townsendsecurity.com/blog/RSA-encryption-key-size-requirements-change-in-2011 
) that talks about the evolving encryption standards that helps to  
understand why this card has lost value.

As for not being allowed to resell?  That doesn't ring true to me.  I  
can't imagine the Homeland Security objecting to someone using an  
encryption algorithm that was known to be obsolete.

jte


On Feb 9, 2011, at 3:49 PM, Graap, Kenneth wrote:

> I heard something interesting today .... I am no longer using a  
> 4758-023 PCI Cryptographic Coprocessor card and was hoping to sell it.
>
> I was told by a hardware reseller that IBM doesn't allow these cards  
> to be resold. Something to do with "Homeland Security" ...
>
> Is this really true ?
>
> We paid $5k for this thing and I'd hate to think it is just a piece  
> of worthless junk now ....
>
> P
> Please consider the environment before printing this email
>
> Kenneth
> Kenneth E. Graap
> Systems Administrator
> NW Natural
> keg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:keg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethgraap
> 503-226-4211 x5537
>
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--
John Earl
President and CEO,
Townsend Security
360-359-4418
townsendsecurity.com
The Encryption Company