Tyler Whitaker's InfoTech » Cryptography

Is Gigabit Quantum-Encryption ‘Uncrackable’?

Tyler — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:32:16 +0000

I saw an interesting announcement today by id Quantique SA and Senetas Corp. Ltd. about a commercial application of quantum encryption. They claim 1 gigabit per second data rates in their prototype solution. I’ll be interested to see if these ‘Uncrackable’ claims can hold up to the scrutiny of the cryptography community.

Original Article: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196900575

Technorati tags: id Quantique SA, Senetas Corp. Ltd., Quantum Encryption, Encryption, Uncrackable, Gigabit

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CIA Kryptos Sculpture Reveals 8 More Characters

Tyler — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 23:21:34 +0000

There is an interesting Wired article on new developments in the quest to solve the secrets of a CIA sculpture called Kryptos. It turns out that Jim Sanborn the puzzles creator left off one character of the approximately 1800 letters cipher. This one small change revealed the words “layer two”. What that means and if it can provide the necessary clue to decipher the remaining 97 characters is anyone’s guess.

I first came across the Kryptos puzzle while working through the puzzles on the cover of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” By the way, Google and Sony are playing host to a new online adventure called The Da Vinci Code Quest in honor of the movie release next month. If it’s anything like the original web quest it should be worth a visit.

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German Enigma Alternatives

Tyler — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:58:27 +0000

This morning I came across an interesting InformationWeek article on the German Enigma Code machine from WWII. Earlier this month an original machine was sold for $30,000. But if you’re interested in the technology and don’t have the cash, this article lists several alternatives.

You can buy a Kit from the Bletchley Park Web site for about $210 U.S. A PDF Paper version for the those of you a little paranoid about spyware. Or you can use an electronic version called the Enigma Simulator v5.0.

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63 Year Old Enigma Message Cracked

Tyler — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:40:17 +0000

The M4 Message Breaking Project has just announced breaking a 63 year old encrypted message from German Sub U-623 sent during the height to World War II in November 1942. They accomplished this via a distributed computing project similar to the SETI@home project. Using over 5,000 desktop computers the team was able to work through all of the possible key combinations to crack the message.

It’s interesting to note the level of security the German Enginma code machine provided, given the lack of high speed computers. With the physical limitations of silicon chips on the horizon, massively distributed computing looks to be the most promising approach to solving the worlds high end computing needs.

Virtual Enigma Machine:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/decoding/virtwave.html

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CryptoKids and the NSA

Tyler — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 01:28:31 +0000

I’ve been interested in cryptography and data compression for years. I’m not really sure what draws me to these fields of study aside from the cloak and dagger backdrop you find interlaced through their history. Maybe it’s the pure algorithmic nature of the methods involved that entices me to throw my hat into the ring.

Any how, I found an incredibly cool site the other day that is part of the NSA website. (For those of you wondering what I’m talking about, the Nation Security Agency is the United States premier code creating and break agency, but I digress…) The NSA has a portion of their website devoted toward educating our youth to the fun and adventure that is cryptography. It’s called CryptoKids and it’s dedicated to America’s future codemakers and codebreakers.

Check it out at: http://www.nsa.gov/kids/home.cfm

I hope to add a dedicated page in the near future with more of my thoughts, links, and code on the subject of Cryptography.

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