Welcome! You've reached the DESCHALL homepage. We were a group of Internet users who worked together, in an unprecedented coordinated effort, to solve the original RSA DES Challenge.

This effort represented the world's first confirmed crack of the Data Encryption Standard. The effort took about 4 months.

The following links are provided for historic reference. Many links within these pages no longer work.

"A Brute Force Search of DES Keyspace", an article by Matt Curtin and Justin Dolske

"What DESCHALL Means", an article by Matt Curtin.

Click here to view the DESCHALL home page as it existed on June 17, 1997, shortly before the crack was announced.

Click here to view to the DESCHALL home page as it existed on June 20, 1997, shortly after the crack was announced.

DESCHALL Press Release and Fact Sheet, dated June 18, 1997.