In cryptography, the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA) is a block cipher designed by James Massey of ETH Zurich and Xuejia Lai and was first described in 1991. As a block cipher, it is also symmetric. The algorithm was intended as a replacement for the Data Encryption Standard (DES). IDEA is a minor revision of an earlier cipher, Proposed Encryption Standard (PES); IDEA was originally called Improved PES (IPES).
The cipher was designed under a research contract with the Hasler Foundation, which became part of Ascom-Tech AG. The cipher is patented in a number of countries but is freely available for non-commercial use. The name "IDEA" is also a trademark. The last patents have expired in 2012 and IDEA is now patent-free and thus free to use.
IDEA was used in Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) v2.0, and was incorporated after the original cipher used in v1.0, BassOmatic, was found to be insecure. IDEA is an optional algorithm in the OpenPGP standard.
Read more about International Data Encryption Algorithm: Operation, Security, Availability, Literature
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