Introduction - If you have any usage issues, please Google them yourself
In 1974, IBM proposed "Lucifer", an encryption algorithm that uses 64-bit keys. Two years later, NBS (in consultation with NSA) made a modified version of that algorithm into a standard.
DES takes in 64 bits of data, employs a 56-bit key, and executes 16 cycles of substitution and permutation before outputting 64 bits of encrypted data