Encryption - Cutting-edge Encryption Schemes

CUTTING-EDGE ENCRYPTION SCHEMES

Encryption system developers never gave up on the possibility of an entirely unbeatable encryption code. In 2001, Michael Rabin of Harvard introduced an outline of his "hyper encryption" program. Although the feasibility of such a system was hotly contested, Rabin's notions were highly intriguing to cryptographers and policy analysts. Hyper encryption involves the generation, perhaps by satellite, of such a large quantity of random numbers that no storage system could possibly retain and interpret them. The involved communicators settle on a method of retrieving certain numbers, which are then used to decrypt the information. Immediately upon encrypting or decrypting, their computers then discard the numbers. In this way, in the event that a hacker is able to intercept a message and discover the method by which the random numbers were picked from the stream, he or she would still be without the crucial numbers themselves, and thus would be unable to decrypt the information. Also on the horizon was the development of quantum cryptography, which combined high-tech encryption technology with the latest developments in quantum physics for unbeatable encryption. However, by the early 2000s these were mere promises.