From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Sep 29 2001 - 04:07:08 MDT
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> Eugene Leitl wrote,
> > > Nothing is uncrackable these days, even with brute-force.
> > Sorry, but this is compleat bullshit.
>
> OK. I exaggerate. Rather than "nothing is uncrackable", I should have said
> "99% of the freebie downloadable software in use today run by clueless users
> who just use the default settings and have no patience for time-consuming
> complicated mathematics is probably crackable by a really determined
> attacker today."
>
You would still be wrong. The complicated math is in the
program.
> > No one is talking about encryption for an eternity,
> > Secrets grew really stale really quick.
> > In financial crypto a few minutes will do
>
> I thought you disagreed with me above, but this seems to agree with my
> point. Encryption is not forever. It is a temporary protection that is
> "good enough" for now.
>
Good enough is good enough. Crackable long after anyone cares
or has
use for the contents is pragmatically uncrackable.
> I thought this whole thread was because some people seem to imagine that
> they can hide messages from the government and military that will never be
> detected and will never be cracked. I'm just saying that this is naive and
> such people had better do more than just download outguess and pgp.
>
You can hide messages that will never ever be cracked. PGP is
not efficiently crackable except by attacks that capture keys.
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:11:02 MST