[marcus0x62]

In the mid-late 90s, 40-bit encryption was common due to US export control restrictions, and even then, that was thought to be insecure against a nation state attacker.

In 1998, the EFF built a custom DES Cracker[0] for around $250k that could crack a 56-bit DES message in around 1 week. As was the custom at the time, they published the source code, schematics, and VHDL source in a printed book to evade (and, I guess, mock) export restrictions.

0 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFF_DES_cracker

[clankyclanker]

(If that's the case I'm thinking of) it was actually documented as a challenge to export restrictions, mocking them was merely a pleasant byproduct.

The EFF's legal challenge was essentially that if crypto is a munition, then this printed book explaining the crypto is also at least as much of a munition, if not more so. They gave the judge the choice between deciding that a printed book is some sort of deadly tool, or deciding that crypto wasn't conceptually a munition. Strangely, the judge ruled in the EFF's favor.

[marcus0x62]

That was Phil Zimmerman’s book containing the PGP source whixh was published a few years before the Deep Crack book. https://philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/BookPreface.html