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Animated Encryption

Posted by timothy on from the things-to-dance-with dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "Cartoons for fun and secrecy -- A student at the University of Dayton has apparently come up with an encryption scheme using computer generated animation. Story at the Chronicle of Higher Education."

1 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. two words: SNAKE OIL by Dr.+Awktagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yup, all the tell-tale signs are there:

    • claims that it's potentially "unbreakable"
    • hasn't spent much of his academic career breaking other people's cryptography
    • uses the clout of his dad to get funding
    • and of course, he's patenting it, which means it won't be of any use to anyone.

    My guess is, he found some "smooth noise" generator and thought that it would make a good source of "random numbers", used, e.g., as a key schedule algorithm, and as soon as the patent is published (which it will be, thanks to the dumb patent office), it will be broken (it probably has a short "key" to set initial conditions, which will be easy to break) and this guy will be forgotten.

    Though the cartoon connection is kinda cute and might get some press attention.

    Next?