Article View: uw.general
Article #258Re: Ontario Government Computers: Prudes Veto Vulgarity in Cyberspace
From: SEGAL HENRY ALAN
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 1994 03:59
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 1994 03:59
26 lines
2698 bytes
2698 bytes
In article <2sog25$htt@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, Ed Thomson <ethomson@amazon.ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote: > ... >" ....... ROT13 ....... > ... >-- >Ed Thomson - ethomson@ncsa.uiuc.edu That word set me thinking about ecryption again. When encryption algorithms are being studied, it is generally assumed that the algorithm for encryption is known by the one who is trying to decrypt. (An encryption algorithm is supposed to be unbreakable even if this is true.) Thus, if you have some encrypted text, you can (given infinite time) try all possible texts for the source, and test if the result of encrypting it matches the given encrypted text. In many cases, however, the algorithm is not known. How, then, is the text deciphered? If we know that the original message is made of letters, then we could try many decryption algorithms, and test the results of each for high alphanumeric content. If that's how it's done, then I could encrypt my message effectively by inserting a non-alphanumeric ASCII code after every character of my message, and then encrypting. Is there a better way of decrypting? (BTW, this applies to the pre-computer age of encryption also.)
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<CqwoEt.MAv@ecf.toronto.edu>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!hookup!usc!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!cannon.ecf!segalhReferences:
<2s15uu$55d@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <2sjg65$68b@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <CqsnMB.3Iu@ecf.toronto.edu> <2sog25$htt@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 11544f,c5c2f0b1155cd1e6 X-Google-Attributes: gid11544f,public X-Google-Thread: f504b,c5c2f0b1155cd1e6 X-Google-Attributes: gidf504b,public X-Google-Thread: fc3d0,c5c2f0b1155cd1e6 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc3d0,public X-Google-Thread: 10c943,eb6425df834ef5c8 X-Google-Attributes: gid10c943,public X-Google-Thread: 114af9,eb6425df834ef5c8 X-Google-Attributes: gid114af9,public X-Google-Thread: 10f6dc,5316e9cdce69bce X-Google-Attributes: gid10f6dc,public X-Google-Thread: f99dc,c5c2f0b1155cd1e6 X-Google-Attributes: gidf99dc,public X-Google-Thread: 115981,5316e9cdce69bce X-Google-Attributes: gid115981,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-06-04 21:01:37 PST Newsgroups: uw.general,ut.general,ubc.general,ont.general,mtl.general,comp.org.eff.talk,can.infobahn,can.general,bc.general,alt.wired,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!hookup!usc!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!cannon.ecf!segalh From: segalh@ecf.toronto.edu (SEGAL HENRY ALAN) Subject: Re: Ontario Government Computers: Prudes Veto Vulgarity in Cyberspace Message-ID: <CqwoEt.MAv@ecf.toronto.edu> Sender: news@ecf.toronto.edu (News Administrator) Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility References: <2s15uu$55d@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <2sjg65$68b@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <CqsnMB.3Iu@ecf.toronto.edu> <2sog25$htt@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> Distribution: inet Date: Sun, 5 Jun 1994 03:59:17 GMT Lines: 28