Data Encryption Standard (DES)

Updated 12 Aug 2026

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Definition
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  a symmetric block cipher developed by an IBM team and adopted as a US federal standard in 1974, in response to a government call for a standardized cipher industry could build into equipment
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Characteristics
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  56-bit key space ( $2^{56}$ ) — adequate in 1974, but brute-forceable today
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  encrypts 64 bits (8 characters) at a time, unlike historical ciphers that worked one character at a time — the beginning of block cipher design
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Status today
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  considered insecure and should not be used in new projects, though it lingers in legacy systems; succeeded by algorithms like AES (128-bit keys and up)
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Related
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  Substitution Cipher

Linked references 1