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Faster Encryption Algorithm Found By 16 Year Old Girl

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the geek-gals dept.

Jan Stette writes "This story has made the front page of the UK newspapers today. A 16 year old Irish girl has devised an encryption algorithm that is allegedly as secure as RSA but is much faster at performing the encryption. " Update: 01/15 02:24 by S : A picture of her talking to Gordon Moore.

3 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Snake Oil. Be skeptical. Be very skeptical. by David+Jao · · Score: 2
    This article just screams "snake oil" all over. The claims made in the article are completely unjustified. In the field of cryptography, no algorithm or idea is considered worthy unless it has been publicly scrutinized and tested with time.

    Consider the following points:

    • "her code can encrypt a letter in just one minute - a widely used encryption standard called RSA would take 30 minutes." No justification is given, and indeed we all know that PGP does not take 30 minutes to encrypt e-mail.
    • "She has also proven that her code is as secure as RSA." Again, no justification is given. Proofs of correctness are rare in computer science. Moreover, there are many different levels and definitions of security in the field (known plaintext, chosen ciphertext, complete break, etc.) and this quote does not cite any of them.
    • Consider the source: Most of the material is quoted from her father.
    I urge everyone to first read the Snake Oil FAQ before taking this and other similar articles at face value.
  2. It won the Irish Young Scientist's Compo by Quark · · Score: 2

    The algorithm in question won first prize at the Irish Young Scientist's Exhibition, which is an annual contest in which secondary school students (12-18 years old) exhibit science projects. Last year, the same student came second with another crypto project, and represented Ireland at the Intel Science Competition in the US. The part about the judges not being able to understand the project is true. The judges had to get in a crypto expert to validate the project.

    I don't know any details about the algorithm itself, cos I never got a chance to attend. Bugger....

    Quark
    --

    --
    I've got green eyes, red hair, and I'm left handed. A hundred years ago, I'd have been considered in league with the De
  3. Skeptical by Elessar · · Score: 2

    Hmm.... I'm very skeptical of this. I certainly wouldn't trust any new encryption algorithm until it has been hammered at for a good few years by some cryptanalysis experts. Some pretty intelligent people have proposed new algorithms over the years only to have them exposed as totally vulnerable shortly afterwards.

    In short - don't trust it (yet).