It has all the hallmarks of snakeoil. After a bit of searching around, I found another article at the Sunday Times (not noted for it's fact checking) and a company site. I'll include their page on the method below. It looks like typical snake oil - the description includes a number of errors which indicate a basic unfamiliarity with modern cryptography, and the usual grandiose claims of infallibility of their system, combined with claims of the weakness of current algorithms. Bruce Schneier would have fun with this one. Johnson seems quite a colorful character. Aside from crypto, he also has interests in sewage treatment, image enhancement, intellectual property protection, display technology, economic forcasting, and genetic engineering. Several of these involve something he calls 'fractal modulation'. There's nothing that screams "this doesn't work", but also nothing to make me take it seriously. Among other things, they seem to think they've invented perfect forward secrecy. Peter Trei Sunday times article: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/02/13/stidordor03008.html ---------------------- >From e-larms' web page at http://www.e-larm.co.uk E-Larm Corporation Limited is a subsidiary of the Microbar Security Group which is, in turn, wholly owned by Durand Technology Limited. E-larm Corporation Limited is a fully-owned subsidiary of Microbar Security Limited and is party to the joint venture with Debden Security Printing, a subsidiary of the Bank of England. E-larm� uses Fractal Modulation and Chaos to create a completely different extremely secure and compact method for encrypting and decrypting data for e-commerce and other purposes. There is a high degree of dissatisfaction from e-commerce users and strong concerns about security that must be overcome in order to enable e-commerce to develop in the way it deserves. Present encryption methods: Variations on a well-know theme with public and private keys arranged so that an exhaustive search will crack the code. The problem is that modern computing with its enormous power can complete an exhaustive search given time so that the traditional safeguard that the information will be old and less sensitive by the time it is cracked has gone away. In other words systems can be broken and therefore hacker can enter. E-larm makes this impossible. In the past encryption has always been prone to eventual repeat patterns that give the game away. Random numbers are really pseudo random and are large prime numbers. However, these must repeat eventually if the transmission is long enough or frequent enough using the same encryption. All current e-commerce encryption is stationary. That is to say that the algorithms and keys do not change during the transmission just like the wartime Enigma machine. The uniqueness of E-larm A fresh approach to developing non-repeating chaotic numbers protects against deciphering. It is a non-stationary encryption approach. In other words, E-Larm uses different keys and algorithms on a random basis throughout the transmission. Or it is like a warehouse full of Enigma machines which are used at random and only for a few keystrokes each. Secure opening communication system, a secret handshake, to exchange keys. Or in other words to agree which warehouse full of Enigma machines to use for this particular transmission. We must make it clear that the keys for e-larm are not the same as for traditional encryption. E-larm is so diverse in its choice of algorithms and keys and because it uses chaos cannot be broken even if its approach is known. An exhaustive search cannot unlock chaotic encryption. ---------------------- > ---------- > From: William Knowles[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 7:00 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Republic targeted for sale of 'unhackable' system > > Snakeoil? > > [Smells like it. --Perry] > > http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2000/1110/fin10.htm > > Friday, November 10, 2000 > > SECURITY/Jamie Smyth: A Guersey-based multimillionaire inventor, who > claims to have developed the world's first "unhackable" communications > security system, is seeking potential buyers in the Republic. Dr > William Johnson, a tax exile with more than 100 registered patents to > his name, has sent a negotiating team to the Republic to contact > companies who may be interested in purchasing the licensing rights to > the security system, E-Larm. > [...]
