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View Full Version : Permanent Privacy offering a million dollars


Spastic
07-08-2008, 1:02 PM
To anyone who can crack their encryption. (http://www.permanentprivacy.com/challenge.htm) Although you have to buy a license, which costs about 40 bucks (US). From first glance It looks like it is pretty secure, here is a quote taken from them saying even a 5 letter word is impossible to cipher.

Suppose that the plain text message is simply one 5-letter word. At first glance, you would think that this must be easy to break. But there are, let us say, about 100 printable characters on a computer keyboard, so there are some 100×100x100×100x100 ways of producing a 5-letter word.

This means that there are about 10 billion different possible 5-letter words, including every 5-letter word in every language plus every permutation of numerals and gibberish.

A brute-force attack on PP’s cyphertext would produce ALL of them (plus every 4-, 3- and 2-letter word) and there is no way of knowing which word is the original plain text unless you have the keys.

I doubt this will be cracked, and am actually looking forward to this method of encryption for the future. Though who knows, if someone does crack it, it will definitely pay off for the initial investment.

MrDoctor
07-08-2008, 1:33 PM
I don't think someone will crack it legally. I'm betting someone will get the keys from the company illegally and just say they cracked it for the million.

Desert
07-08-2008, 1:49 PM
I'm sure somebody will try to steal them. It's an easy way to make money; the company, to make money, that is. Any genius will pay 40 bucks to win a million. Any moron will pay 40 bucks to try and use random codes to crack it.

Dodger
07-08-2008, 2:08 PM
I think their stipulation is pretty stupid. They're basically saying "Try and beat us as long as you don't exploit our weakness". Obviously them just saying that proves that this isn't undecipherable, and therefore not 100% safe. I doubt there will be something 100% safe, for every security measure there's 10 more ways to get around them.

Graft
07-08-2008, 2:16 PM
Obviously them just saying that proves that this isn't undecipherable, and therefore not 100% safe.

The only way for something to be 100% safe is if it is on a computer that has no outside access, ie the internets.

PS. Your Av is hypnotizing.

Prawnatron
07-08-2008, 4:22 PM
Anyone who attemps this is stupid, a one in 10 billion chance, just try the lottery.

Beefynick
07-08-2008, 4:48 PM
I think this is a great idea for the company. They can earn money from amateur hackers/crackers thinking they can crack an encryption code that is virtually uncrackable. It is an interesting idea.

Spastic
07-09-2008, 2:16 AM
Anyone who attemps this is stupid, a one in 10 billion chance, just try the lottery.

Not if you know what you are doing, but yeah it's pretty lame how there are guidelines on what you can do.