Re: PCI Cryptographic Coprocessor Card

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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