Entries Tagged "cryptography"

Page 49 of 55

The Doghouse: KRYPTO 2.0

The website is hysterical:

Why are 256 bits the technically highest coding depth at all on computers possible are ?

A computer knows only 256 different indications.
1 indication = 1 byte has 8 bits in binary the number system exactly.
1 bit knows only the switching status: on or out or 0 or 1 by the combination of these 8 bits results 256 bits.
The computation in addition: 2 switching status highly 8 bits = 256 bits these 256 bits
is addressed in decimally the number system from 0 to 255 = 256 bits.
Computers work however in in hexadecimals the number system.
There these 256 bits designated above are addressed from 00 to FF = 256 bits.
A byte cannot be thus under bits 0 or over bits 255.
Therefore 256 bits are the technically highest coding depth at all on computers
possible are.

Proof of the Krypto security !
Which would be, if one would try one of Krypto coded file unauthorized to decode.
A coded file with the length of 18033 indications has therefore according to computation, 256 bits highly 18033 indications = 6,184355814363201353319227173630ë+43427
file possibilities. Each file possibility has exactly 18033 indications byte.
Multiplied by the number of file possibilities then need results in the memory.
Those are then: 1,1152248840041161000440562362208e+43432 byte.
Those are then: 1,038634110245961789082788150963è+43423 Giga byte data quantity.
That is a number with 43424 places.
I can surely maintain as much memory place give it in the whole world not never.
And the head problem now is, which is now the correctly decoded file.
Who it does not know can only say there. That does not know so exactly !
They can code naturally naturally also still successively several times, even up to
the infinity.

My head hurts just trying to read that.

Posted on June 8, 2006 at 7:50 AM •

Da Vinci Code Ruling Code

There is a code embedded in the ruling in The Da Vinci Code plagiarism case.

You can find it by searching for the characters in italic and boldface scattered throughout the ruling. The first characters spell out “SMITHCODE”: that’s the name of the judge who wrote the ruling The rest remains unsolved.

According to The Times, the remaining letters are: J, a, e, i, e, x, t, o, s, t, p, s, a, c, g, r, e, a, m, q, w, f, k, a, d, p, m, q, z.

According to The Register, the remaining letters are: j a e i e x t o s t g p s a c g r e a m q w f k a d p m q z v.

According to one of my readers, who says he “may have missed some letters,” it’s: SMITHYCODEJAEIEXTOSTGPSACGREAMQWFKADPMQZV.

I think a bunch of us need to check for ourselves, and then compare notes.

And then we have to start working on solving the thing.

From the BBC:

Although he would not be drawn on his code and its meaning, Mr Justice Smith said he would probably confirm it if someone cracked it, which was “not a difficult thing to do”.

As an aside, I am mentioned in Da Vinci Code. No, really. Page 199 of the American hardcover edition. “Da Vinci had been a cryptography pioneer, Sophie knew, although he was seldom given credit. Sophie’s university instructors, while presenting computer encryption methods for securing data, praised modern cryptologists like Zimmermann and Schneier but failed to mention that it was Leonardo who had invented one of the first rudimentary forms of public key encryption centuries ago.”

That’s right. I am a realistic background detail.

EDITED TO ADD (4/28): The code is broken. Details are in The New York Times:

Among Justice Smith’s hints, he told decoders to look at page 255 in the British paperback edition of “The Da Vinci Code,” where the protagonists discuss the Fibonacci Sequence, a famous numerical series in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. Omitting the zero as Dan Brown, “The Da Vinci Code” author, does the series begins 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.

Solving the judge’s code requires repeatedly applying the Fibonacci Sequence, through the number 21, to the apparently random coded letters that appear in boldfaced italics in the text of his ruling: JAEIEXTOSTGPSACGREAMQWFKADPMQZVZ.

For example, the fourth letter of the coded message is I. The fourth number of the Fibonacci Sequence, as used in “The Da Vinci Code,” is 3. Therefore, decoding the I requires an alphabet that starts at the third letter of the regular alphabet, C. I is the ninth letter regularly; the ninth letter of the alphabet starting with C is K; thus, the I in the coded message stands for the letter K.

The judge inserted two twists to confound codebreakers. One is a typographical error: a letter that should have been an H in both the coded message and its translation is instead a T. The other is drawn from “Holy Blood, Holy Grail,” the other book in the copy right case. It concerns the number 2 in the Fibonacci series, which becomes a requirement to count two letters back in the regular alphabet rather than a signal to use an alphabet that begins with B. For instance, the first E in the coded message, which corresponds to a 2 in the Fibonacci series, becomes a C in the answer.

The message reads: “Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought.”

I’m disappointed, actually. That was a whopper of a hint, and I would have preferred the judge to keep quiet.

EDITED TO ADD (5/8): Commentary on my name being in The Da Vinci Code.

Posted on April 27, 2006 at 6:47 PM • View Comments

The Kryptos Sculpture

The Kryptos Sculpture is located in the center of the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA. It was designed in 1990, and contains a four-part encrypted puzzle. The first three parts have been solved, but now we’ve learned that the second-part solution was wrong and here’s the corrected solution.

The fourth part remains unsolved. Wired wrote:

Sanborn has said that clues to the last section, which has only 97 letters, are contained in previously deciphered parts. Therefore getting those first three sections correct has been crucial.

Posted on April 21, 2006 at 7:54 AM • View Comments

Deniable File System

Some years ago I did some design work on something I called a Deniable File System. The basic idea was the fact that the existence of ciphertext can in itself be incriminating, regardless of whether or not anyone can decrypt it. I wanted to create a file system that was deniable: where encrypted files looked like random noise, and where it was impossible to prove either the existence or non-existence of encrypted files.

This turns out to be a very hard problem for a whole lot of reasons, and I never pursued the project. But I just discovered a file system that seems to meet all of my design criteria—Rubberhose:

Rubberhose transparently and deniably encrypts disk data, minimising the effectiveness of warrants, coersive interrogations and other compulsive mechanims, such as U.K RIP legislation. Rubberhose differs from conventional disk encryption systems in that it has an advanced modular architecture, self-test suite, is more secure, portable, utilises information hiding (steganography / deniable cryptography), works with any file system and has source freely available.

The devil really is in the details with something like this, and I would hesitate to use this in places where it really matters without some extensive review. But I’m pleased to see that someone is working on this problem.

Next request: A deniable file system that fits on a USB token, and leaves no trace on the machine it’s plugged into.

Posted on April 18, 2006 at 7:17 AM • View Comments

Security Applications of Time-Reversed Acoustics

I simply don’t have the science to evaluate this claim:

Since conventional sound waves disperse when traveling through a medium, the possibility of focusing sound waves could have applications in several areas. In cryptography, for example, when sending a secret message, the sender could ensure that only one location would receive the message. Interceptors at other locations would only pick up noise due to unfocused waves. Other potential uses include antisubmarine warfare and underwater communications that benefit from targeted signaling.

Posted on April 5, 2006 at 1:06 PM • View Comments

Quasar Encryption

Does anyone have the faintest clue what they’re talking about here? If I had to guess, it’s just another random-number generator. It definitely doesn’t sound like two telescopes pointing at the same piece of key can contruct the same key—now that would be cool.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology is trying to patent a system of encryption using electromagnetic waves from Quasars.

According to The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, this technology is used to take cosmic radio waves are received through a radio telescope, encrypt and then retransmit them. Because cosmic waves are irregular, it is virtually impossible for others to decipher them. A spokesman is quoted as saying that the system could be used for the transmission of state secrets and other sensitive information.

The radio telescope can decipher the information by observing the cosmic wave patterns emitted by a particular quasar selected in advance. Even if the encrypted data is stolen, it is impossible to read it without the appropriate quasar’s radio signals.

The only way to really break the code is to know which radio telescope the coder is using and what Quasar it is pointing at. Only then do you have a slim chance of decoding it.

I can see the story on the home page of Nikkei.net Interactive, but can’t get at the story without a login.

Posted on March 27, 2006 at 1:21 PM • View Comments

1 … 47 48 49 50 51 … 55

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.