Encryption Cracking Talk.

[Joe Johnson]

Can I ask a favor? I really wish folks would stop talking about cracking the encryption on the PDF files.

I don't think it is appropriate to talk about trying to crack the encryption in public.

The reasons are complex but they boil down to my mom not being able to judge just how secure things are and she just assumes that if folks say they are trying (or could be trying), some fraction of them must be succeeding.

I am convinced that there is too little at stake for anyone to actually put the resources needed to crack this code in time to be of use (if it is possible at all*), but that does not mean that the integrity of the system is not damaged by such talk and my mom's misunderstanding.

Try to crack the code if you must, knock yourself out, head down the very bowels of the internet and find that guy claiming to have KGB ties and the double secret Coder Cracker Hacker discovered by Satan himself, run the code (if you think you can trust him), live the life...

...just don't talk about it on ChiefDelphi.com.

My mom may be reading these messages and I don't want to waste my time explaining to her how unlikely it is that Satan has taken up C coding in his spare time ;-)

Am I being unreasonable here?

Joe J.

*Let's leave aside the question of what the code cracking hardware the full faith and credit of the this or that gov't may have access to -- we're not talking about state secrets here.