IP Technical question

[Ian Batten]

On 30 Jan 09, at 1754, Paul Jakma wrote:
> (there is further anecdotal evidence that mafia types in the USA  
> regularly use encryption)

Indeed, the precursors to the NSA kept themselves busy between the  
wars on bootleggers' traffic:

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/esfriedman.htm

> Anti-prohibitionists provided Mrs. Friedman and her team of  
> cryptanalysts with innumerable opportunities to hone their  
> cryptanalytic/codebreaking skills during her employment with the  
> U.S. Treasury Department. She led the cryptanalytic effort against  
> international smuggling and drug-running radio and encoded messages,  
> which the runners began to use extensively to conduct their illegal  
> operations. Even though early codes were very basic, their  
> subsequent change in complexity and resistance to solution was  
> predicated on the financial success and growth of the operation. The  
> extent of sophistication seemed to pose no problem for Mrs.  
> Friedman; she still mounted successful attacks against both the  
> simple substitutions and transpositions and the more complex  
> enciphered codes which eventually came into use. While working for  
> the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Foreign Control during the  
> Prohibition era, she solved over 12,000 rum-runners' messages.