More History
*1970 Civ Feistel Dr. Horst Feistel led a research project at the IBM Watson Research Lab in the 1960's which developed the Lucifer cipher. This later inspired the US DES and other product ciphers, creating a family labeled ``Feistel ciphers''.
*1976 civ/govt FIPS PUB-46 A design by IBM, based on the Lucifer cipher and with changes (including both S-box improvements and reduction of key size) by the US NSA, was chosen to be the U.S. Data Encryption Standard. It has since found worldwide acceptance, largely because it has shown itself strong against 20 years of attacks. Even some who believe it is past its useful life use it as a component -- e.g., of 3-key triple-DES.
*1977 IBM submitted a candidate that it had developed internally under the name LUCIFER. After evaluating the algorithm with the help of the National Security Agency (NSA), the NBS adopted a modification of the LUCIFER algorithm as the new Data Encryption Standard (DES) on July 15, 1977
DES was quickly adopted for non-digital media, such as voice-grade public telephone lines. Within a couple of years, for example, International Flavors and Fragrances was using DES to protect its valuable formulas transmitted over the phone ("With Data Encryption, Scents Are Safe at IFF," Computerworld 14, No. 21,95
* 1980) Meanwhile, the banking industry, which is the largest user of encryption outside government, adopted DES as a wholesale banking standard. Standards for the wholesale banking industry are set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI X3.92, adopted in 1980, specified the use of the DES algorithm