The SHA-1 algorithm, one of the first widely used methods of
protecting electronic information, has reached the end of its useful life,
according to security experts at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST). The agency is now recommending that IT professionals replace
SHA-1, in the limited situations where it is still used, with newer algorithms
that are more secure.
SHA-1, whose initials stand
for “secure hash algorithm,” has been in use since 1995 as part of the Federal
Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-1. It is a slightly modified version
of SHA, the first hash function the federal government standardized for
widespread use in 1993. As today’s increasingly powerful computers are able to
attack the algorithm, NIST is announcing that SHA-1 should be phased out by
Dec. 31, 2030, in favor of the more secure SHA-2 and SHA-3 groups of algorithms