Slashdot Mirror
200-Year-Old Cipher Finally Cracked
Attila Dimedici writes "A code expert just cracked a code used by a friend of Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to Jefferson some 200 years ago. This code is fairly easy to crack using a computer, but extremely difficult without one. I think it would have been much harder if the author had not included an indication as to what code algorithm he used in the letter accompanying the coded message."
What? You actually expect the article submitter to RTFA?
This guy's the limit!
Obscurity IS a level of security, which is good, but it's only one level. Hopefully you have a security system that is robust enough that even when the obscurity is pierced, it is still secure. In the past when people complain about Microsoft depending on security through obscurity, they were referring to the fact that Windows was at one time so insecure that it was only a matter of obscurity that gave it any security at all. That isn't to say obscurity is all bad for security.
In this case, unless you knew the key, it would have been extremely time consuming to discover the solution, even if you knew the algorithm used. Notice it took the guy a week to solve it, even with a computer, and modern cryptanalysis techniques.
Qxe4