-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article <199501182358.SAA29305@bb.hks.net>, you wrote:
Variations on this theme (there are many) are encouraged. Have a friend check out a library book and let you stamp your key somewhere inside. It's the number of possible variations that make this seemingly impossible to attack. Apologies if this "secret ink" stuff is way off base ;-) .
Most people (myself included) would opt for the "split and disguise" or "hidden/buried" key schemes where secret ink wouldn't add much security.
'Adam Shostack' was reported to have written:
If you want to hide bits, they should be stripped of low entropy parts and hidden with a stego program.
The idea was to use something other than magnetic media. A new and different optical encoding method could be devised to hide a key in a halftone, but the barcode example was offered as one possibility using an existing standard. The basis for this thread was the perceived need for a relatively simple key backup system that didn't require the active participation of a whole hoard of people.
Pat Cadigan, in her novel SYNNERS, had the off-beat idea of having crucial data encoded into graphical images and tattooed onto the skins of beach bums. I've heard of worse ideas. . . . | PROOF-READER, n: A malefactor who atones for Alan Bostick | making your writing nonsense by permitting abostick@netcom.com | the compositor to make it unintelligible. finger for PGP public key | Ambrose Bierce, THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Key fingerprint: | 50 22 FB 46 41 A3 17 9D F7 33 FF E1 4E 1C 89 79 +legal_kludge=off -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.1 iQB1AgUBLyBy+eVevBgtmhnpAQF2ogMAh5Br252k6h29mcNepsDfo0htW32AmcfX 6YpJZycKs95V3foxd5pdjtuPqdkEeI03n966g3TXRbgNSe3dX7je1h8b6wsDH9hF CWsabq/Z5KgiRUIGHDrcEtKpsl0+Xf2y =txNr -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----