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Cryptogram: AES Broken?
bcrowell writes "The latest CryptoGram reports
that AES (Rijndael) and Serpent may have been broken. The good news is that when cryptographers say 'broken' they don't necessarily mean broken in a way that is practical to exploit right now. Still, maybe we need to assume that any given type of crypto is only temporary. All of cryptography depends on a small number of problems that are believed to be hard. And all bets are definitely off when quantum computers arrive on the scene. Maybe someday we'll look back fondly on the golden age of privacy."
real crypto can be near impossible to be broken, but it can never be uncrackable or unbreakable. I can take any easily broken crypto scheme and make it ultra secure by placing several techniques used in 1920's and the 1940's on top of it. How about adding some obscurity? Padding? one time ciphers? How about making sure the data has no predictable components? (sending it as a Word file or Zipped and then encrypt it... pure stupidity!) I can think of at least 2 dozen ways to make sure you cant decrypt that one message fast enough for it to be useful to you. hell I have a $9.95 book on cryptology that has some super basic encryption techniques that the best cryptologists out there couldnt break it for at least a year.. maybe 10 if I screw with it a bit. (how about reversing the entire text before encryption?)
basically if you really have a need to communicate secretely you will be able to do it without much worry.. this only affects daily-mundane things that really dont matter except to keep honest people honest, or at least to make the criminal have 1/2 a brain.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Giving up a bit of privacy for the sake of society is good so long as people are given the freedom to make their own choices. This is in contrast to how it works now -- privacy is slowly being eroded while at the same time, our freedom to do our own thing is being taken away.
Holland, is a perfect example of a society where privacy and freedom somewhat more well balanced than here in North America. They are very tolerant with each other -- basically, you can do as you please as long as you dont hurt or piss anyone else off. At the same time, they are very open in their actions -- for example, walk around a neighbourhood at night anywhere in Holland. You will find tha most people do not close their curtains. You can peer right in and see them going about their lives clothed, unclothed, sober, drunk, stoned, whatever. They basically have taken the attitude that they have nothing to hide, even in their own homes.
Yes, I know I have oversimplified the whole issue and there are many holes in my logic but I still think Holland is going in the right direction.