Secure and Fast Encryption Routine

In cryptography, SAFER (Secure and Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. Its first variant was published in 1993, and other variants were published until about 2000. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share the same encryption function, but differ in the number of rounds and the key schedule. More recent versions – SAFER+ and SAFER++ – were submitted as candidates to the AES process in 1998 and the NESSIE project in 2000, respectively. All of the algorithms in the SAFER family are unpatented and available for unrestricted use.