TiVo Awarded Patent For Password You Can't Hack

Davis Freeberg writes "TiVo has always been known for thinking outside of the box, but this week they were awarded an unusual patent related to locking down content on their hard drives. According to the patent, they've invented a way to create password security that is so tough, it would take you longer than the life of a hard drive in order to figure it out. They could be using this technology to prevent the sharing of content or it could be related to their advertising or guide data, but if their encryption technology is really that good, it's an interesting solution for solving the problem of securing networks."

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Hamel's Folly

[eddy]

On the dangers of assuming keyspace => security:

The mechanical ciphering machine invented by Alexander von Kryha in 1924 received the Prize of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior at the 1926 Police Fair and a Diploma from the famous postwar Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, at the International Press Exhibition in Cologne two year later. Von Kryha was not only an inventor, but also an astute entrepreneur. To promote his commercial venture Internationale Kryha Machinen Gesellschaft of Hamburg, Kryha turned to the famous mathematician Georg Hamel for an endorsement. Hamel calculated the size of the key space to be 4.57*10^50 and concluded that only immortals could cryptanalyze Kryha ciphertext. Not withstanding Hamels estimate, a cryptanalysis of the Kryha machine by Friedman did not require as much time and is described in the ''2 Hours, 41 Minutes,'' a chapter in Machine Cryptography and Modern Cryptanalysis [Devoirs and Ruth, 1985].

from ''Computer Security and Cryptography'', Alan G. Konheim.