Cool, but kinda un-nerving

[Dave]

Okay, this is a bit offtopic, but would an encryption company put in an "admin code" in the program so the government, with suitable court backing, could decrypt your email without doing all of that work?

 

Probably - if they were paid a lot of money - but something like OpenGPG is freeware and open source, so it's impossible to do it without someone knowing. Likewise, OpenSSL is as well.

[bloodhound]

sounds fine. but u have to start with the guy giving the key in person. which is not always feasable

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Perhaps you'd encrypt it with a "hard to break" software and send it so by the time they decrypt it, you'd be on a different key.

[Dave]

What's to stop them decrypting the message telling them what the new key is?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Because it's in a one-time pad, which is unbreakable. You send them a message in a breakable code, that takes a long time to break, with the key, and then send the next keys in the one-time pad. So they get each new key in an unbreakable code.

[bloodhound]

just bloody use the likes of RSA sounds like a disease. they are sort of unbreakable

[Dave]

But what's the point? Most one-time pad messages are sent with a book number, and code number to let the recipient know what they're using to encrypt the message, in the knowledge that the recipient's pad will (probably) be safe.

 

Plus with the advent of SSL, they're not really needed all that much anyway.

[NavajoEverclear]

The UK maps are in color! what a rip off.