FIPS-74 Numeric Encryption

The STK Toolkit has a nice feature which uses DES encryption to transform a numeric field into another numeric field of the same length using the US Government's own FIPS-74 section 8 specification.

You will need to scroll down quite a ways to locate Section 8 on this long web page.

The following example transactions illustrate the principles involved.

1. Before party #1 sends his customer data to a telemarketing firm (party #2) for processing, party #1 transforms the customer account numbers into a different numeric value using STK and a secret key. This effectively creates a secret reference number to hide the true value of the account number from party #2.
2. The telemarketing firm (party #2) calls customers to see if they are interested in new services. If a customer is interested in a new service, his record is returned to party #1 along with the secret reference number and the telemarketers comments.
3. Party #1 receives the data from the telemarketer and transforms the secret reference number back into the account number using the same secret key he used in step 1.

This feature can help protect a customer's privacy as required by the new G-L-B law which goes into effect on July 1, 2001. For more information about the G-L-B law see "privacy law".