Double DES encrypts blocks of 64 bits using two 56-bit DES keys sequentially. While it increases security over single DES, it is still vulnerable to a meet-in-the-middle attack that recovers both keys using only 256 operations by precomputing encryptions with the first key and decryptions with the second. Triple DES was developed to prevent this by using three keys totaling 168 bits, providing an effective security of 112 bits. It can operate in two-key or three-key modes.