At 3:48 PM 7/21/96, David Sternlight wrote:

So is your comment. What was broken was not public key, but a particular key length (and by implication shorter ones). You can do that with just about any system, even a one-time pad, by brute force, but it won't buy you ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ much more than sharpening your skills, for longer keys.

This is not correct. The one-time pad is "information-theoretically secure," as proved early on by Shannon. This is much more than being "cryptographically secure," for which the term "brute force" is applicable (albeit essentially still impossible, for a large enough work factor). (I just looked at later posts and saw your response to Simon Spero's rebuttal: "Theoretically Simon is right. Nevertheless one-time pads have been broken through trial and error when they have been reused either out of laziness or force majeure." It is _very_ important that people understand that "reusing a pad" is not a valid use of a _one-time_ pad. Such misuse, while important in actual cryptanalytic history, is no more a "brute forcing" of the pad than is buying a key from an opponent, obtaining it through burglary, etc. All important methods of cracking codes, but not at all what is meant by "brute force.") --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."