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These have been around for years.
Police departments can buy one from:
http://www.meganet.com/meganet...

Perhaps someone will construct a PGP-like program that cannot be so easily broken; one that would take days of computer time to hack!

This already exists! The world'ss best encryptors couldn't beat VME, even with an H2 at stake. Meganet even provided the client to break it, but the algorithm uses a million bits, so it was really hopeless.

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This post is sarcasm. VME is a sick joke, and it's quite unsuitable for any serious security. Who would buy this, you ask? Why, the US Department of Labor, of course. A complete waste of tax dollars, that was.

No fucktard, it doesn't. The algorithms are still bound by the rules of math, and the computers they're using are bound by the rules of physics. Furthermore, this is about specific implementations of algorithms. It's specific to the OpenSSL implementation of AES, etc.

If you don't believe in the math, you could try VME. It hasn't been validated for anything.

Your other statement is just completely untrue, although there is a big market selling dubious encryption software employing such techniques. Well, I guess there's a big market for dubious encryption software of all types.

Meganet (www.meganet.com) is one of my favourites.

http://www.meganet.com/Technology/explain.htm

Aside from having a 64kB key (1 million bits), they claim:

When a transmission of conventional algorithm is sent, it includes an encrypted form of the actual data. Given that a hacker have enough computing power and time, any message can be deciphered. With the VME engine the case is different; the actual data is never transferred. Therefore, when intercepted by a hacker, the results will yield absolutely nothing.

Did you catch that? They claim that the data isn't contained in the encrypted message!

O-kaaaay... so, how does it get from here to there?!? Pulling a statement like this out of their posterior crevices proves that they don't know what they're talking about. Of course the "actual data" is transferred... that's what we call it when data goes from one place to another. Running it through their magic algorithm doesn't eliminate the information content, else there wouldn't be any point in sending the message at all.

This statement could be a clue to the algorithm though, especially combined with the claims that it's faster than RSA and with its suspiciously huge key...

And of course there's another problem. How do you get a 64kB key from a user? You don't. And there's no mention of "VME" being a public-key algorithm, so it's just a session key, not a public key. How useful is that? Not very.

I think I'm beginning to see why this company was able to have lean times even while others were getting VC funding to develop the business plan of the South Park underwear gnomes. Now though, we live in more patriotic times when people will believe that tank commanders have the proper background to recognize when they've "stumbled upon" good cryptographic algorithms.

on the meganet web site: http://www.meganet.com/technology/intro.htm

It looks kind of like they took a whole bunch of known encryption algorithms and smashed them toghether... "is then further encrypted using dozens of other algorithms in different stages to create an avalanche effect."

I'd say hardly revolutionary...

"In an attempt to prove VME's strength, Meganet began offering prizes such as a Ferrari or $1m. to anyone who could break into a VME-protected file. So far, two million people have attempted to crack the code, but none have managed."

I try not to use bad language on public forums, but the most descriptive word I can come up with for this is "********". If VME had ever put this out for that kind of money for a genuine trial, it would have been all over the Net. There is NO evidence I can discover that supports this claim. None. Nada. Zilch. This whole thing is really starting to smell bad.

"In an attempt to prove VME's strength, Meganet began offering prizes such as a Ferrari or $1m. to anyone who could break into a VME-protected file. So far, two million people have attempted to crack the code, but none have managed."

I try not to use bad language on public forums, but the most descriptive word I can come up with for this is "********". If VME had ever put this out for that kind of money for a genuine trial, it would have been all over the Net. There is NO evidence I can discover that supports this claim. None. Nada. Zilch. This whole thing is really starting to smell bad.

"In an attempt to prove VME's strength, Meganet began offering prizes such as a Ferrari or $1m. to anyone who could break into a VME-protected file. So far, two million people have attempted to crack the code, but none have managed."

I try not to use bad language on public forums, but the most descriptive word I can come up with for this is "********". If VME had ever put this out for that kind of money for a genuine trial, it would have been all over the Net. There is NO evidence I can discover that supports this claim. None. Nada. Zilch. This whole thing is really starting to smell bad.

When a transmission of conventional algorithm is sent, it includes an encrypted form of the actual data. Given that a hacker have enough computing power and time, any message can be deciphered. With the VME engine the case is different; the actual data is never transferred. Therefore, when intercepted by a hacker, the results will yield absolutely nothing. [source]

Break the following code and win a Ferrari 360:

Vg'f tbvat gb gnxr zber guna n Sreenev gb trg LBH ynvq, areq.

Actually, when I wrote that comment, I was thinking of a comment that a Harvard number theory prof had written; he said that there was a method that ran in polynomial time, based on the one I posted, but with modifications to avoid factoring n-1. I may have misrembered or he may have been wrong: the APR test, which sounds similar to his description, only runs in close to p-time. Meganet claims to have done it, but they do not have the source on their website, and since they also claim to have created "unbreakable" encryption (no source there either), they are probably full of...um...deception.