There are systems where the ratio is $10^100:1, and the encrypter wins big,
and systems where it's 10^6:1.  The latter are more interesting,
because it means they can't tap everybody, but they can tap _you_
if they really want you.  Most are systems like single-DES, which are
usually avoidable, but it's possible that quantum cryptanalysis will
bring them back for some cases.  I'm personally skeptical,
since I speculate that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle limits
the precision of a QC device to something like Planck's constant,
but I could be wrong.

At 10:34 AM 2/8/99 -0800, Michael Motyka wrote:
>Your theory "feels" correct but in one of the more popular real world
>scenarios the $resource$ ratio for the cracker to the encryptor could be
>as high as 10^5 or 10^6 : 1.
>
>> On Fri, 5 Feb 1999, bram wrote:
>> > I have a theory that no matter what computing machine is available, as
>> > long as the same machine is available to both the encrypter and the
>> > cracker, the cracker wins (barring non-turing complete machinery, of
>> > course.)
>> Jim Gillogly pointed out that I misspoke - I meant to say 'the encrypter
>> wins'

                                Thanks! 
                                        Bill
Bill Stewart, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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