Onn Fri, 22 Aug 1997, John Young apparently forwarded from: "$treet Journal, August 22, 1997, p. A7A.":

On the bright side, cryptologists agree that the decades-old encryption method that Crypto-Logic is claiming to use -- called a "one-time pad" -- is theoretically unbreakable. Each "pad" has a set of uniquely random digital symbols that are coded to the actual message. The recipient uses the same symbols to decrypt the message. The pads are used only once.

ROTFL. (Well, not literally, but smiling.) The "How it works" link on their site is broken :-), so what they're basically saying is "here is some encrypted text, I bet you can't crack it." ----- UP -----??daU?????dr1wEFssYNOgvLDiCyZ296C51VPUo9Mi0BIHMnZTSveVPXb?02G 47ECGIA2UoZgy0Kl!?91zW9SqF05kDlR!fYDPbbP9hH8J0CDLDrFfO3N7CxVur?QJ o22aPgHyUmFpdbg7G!iQSZaHAOELipdS?m7KzGmxylN!kd2otaKISSRilW5HV00221 !jRTYbYOsb9fFpzbxRGeUjvozbviGE00rO?UdhzQ04aPV9ZoB0eJl0o6gA3YJuivVPPyr V6jF3dYhDEba9o4oO1oDaGxRoKEhNEPtGm4UxWxCriUcUEsJRfb7bIXhdwMcW5g CHd7ezbbXO4KD3IWPa67EgoMg42aiRiVtIuhu!So!dRW8lMVOhHx68Co?TPAm7dq dGiGcv1lVheiwX3fpxxy3rMIMpEV-q3s9OF----- End ----- Idiots. Saying that one-time pads are secure is meaningless. Their web site doesn't even mention key exchange. As the Preface to Advanced Cryptography (www.counterpane.com) says, % If I take a letter, lock it in a safe, hide the safe somewhere in % New York, and then tell you to read the letter, that's not % security. That's obscurity. On the other hand, if I take a letter % and lock it in a safe, and then give you the safe along with the % design specifications of the safe and a hundred identical safes with % their combinations so that you and the world's best safecrackers can % study the locking mechanism--and you still can't open the safe and % read the letter, that's security. I'm sure everybody here already knew this, but anybody with a million bucks and no clues at all deserves to be kicked.

"Anyone who says their system is bulletproof is either a liar or stupid," says Winn Schwartau, a Largo, Fla., security expert.

I must disagree... they could be a liar _and_ stupid.

Mr. Neeley admits his integrity is on the line. "If I'm wrong," he notes, "we're out of business."

Somebody ought to forward this thread to his creditors... ::Boots