At 12:33 PM 11/23/1996, Eric Murray wrote:
John Anonymous MacDonald writes:
At 8:09 AM 11/23/1996, Eric Murray wrote:
No, you can't. It's impossible to prove an algorithim unbreakable.
No? Please prove your assertion.
You can't prove a negative.
If it can't be proven, why do you believe it is true? The good news is that you can prove a negative. For example, it has been proven that there is no algorithm which can tell in all cases whether an algorithm will stop.
The best IPG could say is that it can't be broken with current technology. Next week someone might come up with a new way to break ciphers that renders the IPG algorithim breakable.
The best they can say is what they did say: they have a proof that their system is unbreakable. What you question, quite reasonably, is whether they have such a proof.
You point could have been that the same problem exists for proofs- that next week someone could come up with a way to prove, for all time, that an algorithim really IS unbreakable. So, to cover that posibility I should have said "it's currently impossible to prove an algorithim unbreakable". :-)
Or, more accurately, nobody credible has seen such a proof. But, a clever person might invent one. IPG is eager to demonstrate their proof. They should hire a professional skilled in the art to evaluate their proof and publicly announce the results. This costs less than $5000 and would be, presumably, a small part of their profits should they have invented such an algorithm. diGriz