PGP and HMG

[Peter Fairbrother]

> Dave Howe at DHowe@Hawkswing.demon.co.uk wrote:

>> So, are you saying that PGP is not of 'government strength' then?
> Sounds like standard "not invented here" syndrome so beloved of government
> everywhere - they have internal, unpublished crypto which may or may not be
> more advanced than cap'n crunch decoder rings,

Cap'n Crunch decoder rings can be used to encrypt/decrypt (unbreakable)
OTP's  :)

> but is obvously better than
> commercial systems since it is MORE SECRET ;)

One reason for the Govt. to keep it's own codes secret is that the crypto
used is supposed to be unbreakable, and if we know what they use then we
might get an idea of what is breakable and what isn't. Or even just a view
of the state of the art.

Or not... 

-- Peter



<musings> 

Who knows what deceptions GCHQ/NSA might use to get people to use
breakable/compromised crypto? If good modern crypto really is unbreakable
then how do they get plaintext other than by social cryptanalysis?

Is Govt. issue code actually supposed to be unbreakable? Perhaps it's
supposed to be unbreakable by everyone except some Govt. security types.

Is RIPA social cryptanalysis? Can they (only just) break egPGP and, wanting
to prevent people changing to 256-bit whatever or OTP, they introduce RIPA
to give people confidence in the unbreakability of egPGP?

Even OTP might be breakable, and the release of Shannon's papers carefully
contrived disinformation.

Ain't 4 am wonderful. Where does the truth lie? de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de ...

</musings>