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Making An Unbreakable Code

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the yeah,-but-does-it-matter? dept

Tue, Feb 20th 2001 3:11am — Mike Masnick
An interesting story about a Harvard professor who has apparently created a provably unbreakable cryptography system. The very basics of the system are explained, and I'm not sure I completely understand it. However, I agree with some of the skeptics who point out that while technically unbreakable, it's either impractical or unnecessary anyways. There are other ways to get at content beside cryptography. And, of course, if a message can be read by someone, there's always a way it can be read by someone else.
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  • identicon
    Caesar Playfair, 20 Feb 2001 @ 5:33am

    Big Deal

    A one time pad is a provably unbreakable crypto system so this is nothing new!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      jb, 20 Feb 2001 @ 1:03pm

      Re: Big Deal

      yeah, but the point of this seems to be that it is physically impossible for the key to be retained, so the Feds or whoever can't demand it when they investigate you. why this is legally different from just detroying your key when you're done isn't apparent.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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