Re: little encryption tool wanted

From: Foo Bar (foobar965_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 03/30/04 

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 07:40:40 GMT

"S.D. Weijand" <sdw1468@shaw.ca> writes:

> In article <TRs9c.111593$LX.11764704@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>,
> Bruce Palmer <bp201@optonline.net> wrote:

<SNIP>

> >
> > Sorry, didn't mean to rattle your cage. I just get naturally suspicious
> > when I see someone recommend snakeoil. Well, you didn't actually
> > recommend it, but it smacks of astroturfing when obvious garbage isn't
> > immediately hammered. It's not like it hasn't happened here before.
> > Again, sorry to impugn spammish motives to you where none existed!
>
>
> Ouch!
>
> Before the "snakeoil" claim it should be noted:

<SNIP>

Just one question. You write that all these impressive institutions
"have tested the technology, verified the claims, and reported their
findings", but what claims have they verified? Not the one that
Whitenoise is virtually impossible to crack, surely. I don't think
you'll find any such claims in the report of David Wagner, for example.

And when we are done with that, we should look at:
http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/250/
where Hongjun Wu shows that Whitenoise is easily breakable. There was a
thread here in sci.crypt too (long line, the first message has message
id <a3a99538.0312030611.6a9e91a2@posting.google.com>):
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=a3a99538.0312030611.6a9e91a2%40posting.google.com

Some quotes from their FAQ
(http://www.aflow.com/aflow/tinnitus/faq.htm):

<quote>
Q: Why use Whitenoise and how secure is it?
A: An encrypted file is as secure as the algorithm with which it is
encrypted. Unfortunately, even the most known and used methods are being
cracked everyday.
Whitenoise on the other hand, is like no other encryption method in the
World and it is virtually impossible to crack.Whitenoise has survived
all supercomputer attacks. The Tinnitus Key utilizes the security of
whitenoise encryption.
</quote>

So, everything else is bad, Whitenoise is different from all and
"virtually impossible" to crack? Can you feel the smell of snakeoil?

/FB 

-- 
Foo Bar (foobar965@hotmail.com)