"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com> writes:
The reports claimed the spys were using one time pads in some flawed manner, but did not explain very well what the problem was. Does anyone out there know?
The AP story by Rita Beamish says: The Venona program translated 2,200 telegrams intercepted mostly from 1942 to 1945. They were double encoded with a complex numerical system that used a different random pattern for each message, officials said. The code would have been impossible to crack had not the volume of traffic resulted in the Soviets sloppily repeating some of the patterns, said Kahn. The "repeating some of the patterns" means to me "two time pad". Lots of work in general, but doable, unlike the one time pad. Jim Gillogly Mersday, 19 Afterlithe S.R. 1995, 16:00