On Tue, 20 Aug 2002 08:41:16 +0000, Ray Andrews wrote: > Hi Sam/All;
> Good to see the list up and running again; good to know that Michael is > OK, and *good*to*hear*from*him!!* >> Virt Enigma sounds like a good deal. I know others who would be >> interested. <G> >> With only 17K combo's possible, there is another thing you can do to >> foil -- or at least slow down -- decription by the enemy. >> Uz les than purfek spillink, drp vowelz, et >> };> >> Polystepped substitution is better. >> Wherrqihbpc xhliryrtrskh jm yzbald. > I use a simple command line utillity called encrypt.com that employs the > binary Vigenere cypher to scramble any kind of file. It's encryption key can > be over 100 characters long, and any of the 256 ASCII characters can be used, > so the number of possible keys is astronomical and quite unbreakable without > very advanced cryptanalysis. It suffers from none of the limitations of > the program you guys are talking about, and is about 800 bytes long. > I'd be happy to send anyone a copy. > Ray Andrews While your encryption method might be more secure, it has the disadvantage of having a very long key which must be transmitted by secure means and then copied without error into the computer. There are all kinds of cool and nifty and clever and deceptive ways to secretly transmit some Enigma wheel settings consisting of only three characters, and have them pass right under the noses of the enemy agents without their even recognizing the characters as being secret Enigma wheel settings. You can't disguise a string consisting of around a hundred random characters as being just an innocent word or an abbreviation appearing in a pre-designated line and word number of an innocent looking email or post-card. If If you transmit a very long key you will probably have to use a dead-drop or a trusted courier. That is very risky business that could result in the compromise of your clandestine operations if any of your operatives or couriers get caught. Also, a key consisting of only 100 characters will repeat itself much more frequently than the pattern produced by a three wheel enigma machine. It might even be easier to break such a code. You don't want to use any high ascii characters because Windows screws them up. If all of the secret communicators are using DOS, then the use of high ascii characters will not be a problem. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
