Re: Encryption for Fun and Profit..

From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Fri Apr 03 1998 - 18:02:56 MST


> This is a badly written, self congradulating press release, but it
> sounds like they've got a completely different approach to encryption.
> And if you're smarter than them, they'll pay you 1.2 million bucks.

Their "detailed description" is mathematical-sounding bullshit
and absolutely fraudulent claims. Their money is safe, though,
because their system is trivially unbreakable in the same way
a one-time pad is, because their method contains no key exchange
or distribution method; this has been known for centuries.

Any idiot can make an uncrackable cipher, and you don't need
the pile of algorithms these guys yammer on about--you just need
a plastic decoder ring and a safe way to exchange keys. It is
public key distribution where are the interesting stuff is.
These guys are con artists preying on the public's ignorance of
this fact.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC


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