Apostle gives India its first world cipher challenge

Think of an invention that gives its inventors the courage to challenge the world to come ahead and break it…sounds amazing… well, this is the kind of acid-test that Dr Vijay Jha, director of Apostle Embedded Systems has put his 128-bit block cipher through. Cipher, a formula to encrypt, has wide variety of application. Apostle has put the whole technical document of this Cipher on its website, with an addition, a prize tag of Rs 2 lakh to break it. This is the first time the Asia is seeing such a block cipher challenge.

Apostle Embedded Systems Ltd, has invented a new 128-bit block cipher, believed to be the first such Indian Cipher compared to the best international standard of the RSA Lab, IBM and the present advanced encryption standards. Cipher application includes a wide variety of fields, from military communication, e-commerce and proper vigilance administration in banks, to cost effective and error-free implementation of voter card.‘‘We are a 6 core-member company with lots of potential’’, said Dr Jha, speaking to The Indian Express. ‘‘However’’ he added, ‘‘the lack of fund and marketing support is really pulling down innovation.’’

Since 2000 the company has also been drawing attention of the Centre Vigilance Commission towards system level failure in proper vigilance administration of semi-urban bank branches, resulting in huge losses for them, says a company statement. ‘‘We have been trying to sell our product to the government’’ added Dr Jha.