3 Reasons Why Encryption is Overrated -- http://bit.ly/EokrT

[LJMecca]

When it comes to storage and security, discussions traditionally
center on encryption. The reason encryption is accepted as a best
practice rests on the premise that while it's possible to crack
encrypted information, most malicious hackers don't have access to the
amount of computer processing power they would need to decrypt
information.

This blog talks about reasons that encryption is overrated. Curious
to hear people's thoughts -- agree? disagree? Full post is here:
http://bit.ly/EokrT

[♥Ari♥]

On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:34:47 -0700 (PDT), LJMecca wrote:

> This blog talks about reasons that encryption is overrated. Curious
> to hear people's thoughts -- agree? disagree?

Frankly, with dentistry as expensive as yours, you simply can't afford
to let The Man stamp his jackboot down on your face, and so it is that
when faced with the inquiry "did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone?", you find
yourself thinking: "God, I mean ... do any of us? Like, he had to have
people, you know? At least an agent and a publicist."
--
A fireside chat not with Ari!
http://tr.im/holj
Motto: Live To Spooge It!

[Randy Yates]

LJMecca <ljm...@gmail.com> writes:

I disagree with most of it, but I'm just a EE, not a security expert.

However, I'm fairly certain the "future processing power" argument is
moot. Encryption systems evolve over time. E.g., we no longer use 32-bit
keys. And the growth of processing power is so slow that encryption
systems have ample time to evolve.
--
% Randy Yates % "The dreamer, the unwoken fool -
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC % in dreams, no pain will kiss the brow..."
%%% 919-577-9882 %
%%%% <ya...@ieee.org> % 'Eldorado Overture', *Eldorado*, ELO
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

[nemo_outis]

Randy Yates <ya...@ieee.org> wrote in news:m3ws7jv...@ieee.org:

> However, I'm fairly certain the "future processing power" argument is
> moot. Encryption systems evolve over time. E.g., we no longer use 32-bit
> keys. And the growth of processing power is so slow that encryption
> systems have ample time to evolve.

I wouldn't get too worried about current or future processing power
cracking an encryption algorithm. No, the worries are an algorithmic
breaktrough (e.g., fast factoring) or quantum computing (and quantum
computing is no big deal - effectively, it just halves the bit strength).

To put things in perspective there are (very, very roughly) about 10^80
atoms in the universe - call it 2^266. AES-256 (a common modern crypto
algorithm) has a strength (against brute force) of about 2^256. IOW,
broadly comparable to the number of atoms in the universe (let's not sweat
a mere 2^10 difference on a "soft" number :-)

Regards,