I'm not a programmer, so this is all over my head. I'm just throwing this out as a public service. I will forward mail to the original author. *** If a subscriber has the time and interest, I can supply them with sources to build a new public key cryptography system based on unpatented and UNPATENTABLE (because they are already published) cryptographic systems which have an entire level of better security than that RSA rubbish. So far, it appears that keys in the neighborhood of 100-200 bits are equivalent to the "600" bits for RSA and the "military grade" claims of 1024 bits (PGP) should be easily doable in around 300-400 bits. Requirements: You need to either have a good grasp on finite mathematics (fields, rings, and such..just a basic understanding is all that is necessary) or willing to spend the time to learn it (about a week if you are already math-inclined). You need programming skill too (of course). I would also recommend that you use a different compression system from that LZ-based stuff that half the world is using in favor of higher order Markov tree things (I will supply complete references for this too). I am doing this because I have the necessary information but lack the time to develop this project further. [...] Okay, for a good overview paper of doing it in hardware (the software solution is also possible..just that you can't do it quite the same..online that is), see _An Implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems Over F-2-155_ , IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 11, #5, June 1993 (page 804). Essentially, nonsupersingular elliptic curves over the finite group of characteristic 2 become reducible to the discrete logarithm problem. Watch when you are looking for papers and doing the research for stuff by Neal Koblitz..he really knows his stuff and wrote a very good introductory book to finite arithmetic and cryptology, although the elliptic curve system in the book was written before the hole in the supersingular case was known. Elliptic curve cryptosystems appear to be the strongest known public key cryptosystem on a per-bit basis in existence. The algorithm is still horrendously slow (just like RSA-based stuff) so don't expect to be doing the encryption/decryption in real time unless you're building it in hardware. The paper mentioned above has all the references you'll need. Use a good solid block cypher for actual encryption and just encrypt a seed using the public key stuff. Do us all a favor and publish it in library as well as full-blown software package form and allow for plug-in encryption modules as well as key management systems so the software doesn't have to be done all over again each time. Same with any compression software you put in it. As far as compression (lossless) goes, you'll have to search for the papers on that because my copy appears to have been borrowed and not returned. Look for "Prediction by Partial Matching" or "PPM". This is a multiple-order Markov solution which does better than the LZ-based things.