Question

A network administrator is forced to use DES on aging equipment. What is one thing the administrator should do in this situation?

-Use ECC instead of parity.​
-Increase the key length.
-Implement CBC mode.
-Increase the number of bits used for encryption.​

Answer 1

The network administrator should implement Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode when constrained to use DES, as this enhances security without altering key size.

Step-by-step explanation:

If a network administrator is forced to use DES on aging equipment, the recommended action is to implement CBC mode. Data Encryption Standard (DES) is inherently limited to a 56-bit key length, so increasing the number of bits or the key length is not feasible with DES. However, using Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode can enhance security by encrypting each block of data with the previous encrypted block, which helps mitigate certain types of attacks, although it does not strengthen the underlying key size.