Where does your data want to go today?

[Mark M.]

On Thu, 30 May 1996, Marshall Clow wrote:

> At 12:47 AM -0700 5/30/96, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:
> >From:	IN%"mclow at owl.csusm.edu"  "Marshall Clow" 29-MAY-1996 19:18:31.60
> >
> >>* Why encrypt before compression? If the encryption is any good, then the
> >>encrypted data won't compress much at all. However, compression before
> >>encryption has its own problems.
> >
> >	What problems does compression before encryption have? It at least
> >seems to work for PGP.
> >
> Most compression schemes put a header/index on the front of the
> compressed data.
> This makes recognizing the correct decryption very simple.
> 
> Call it a limited "known plaintext" situation.

PGP, and I'm sure other encryption programs, strip this header off as there is
no need for it.  Compression actually makes encryption much stronger because
it eliminates a lot of the patterns found in plaintext and makes cryptanalysis
much harder.

-- Mark

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markm at voicenet.com              | finger -l for PGP key 0xe3bf2169
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"The concept of normalcy is just a conspiracy of the majority" -me


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