Cryptography Watch

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced a design competition for a new hash algorithm (Federal Registrar Notice). The new algorithm is to be called SHA-3 and will augment, rather than supplant, the hash algorithms currently specified in the Secure Hash Standard (FIPS 180-2). Submissions must be received by October 31, 2008.

The security of the SHA series of hashes was brought into question when a Chinese researcher demonstrated that higher order algebraic attacks could be useful in attacks against SHA0 and SHA1.

Germany has enacted an internet traffic data retention law. A list of how the German representatives voted is available. This law will likely mean the end of Tor exit nodes in Germany as of 2009 when sanctions of the law will take full effect. A challenge as to the constitutionality of the law is expected.

An updated OpenPGP Message Format specification standard has been published by the IETF in RFC4880.