Do you think cryptanalysis is used in the War on Terror??

Oct 27, 2007
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So I'm about 2/3 through Neal Stephenson's Crytonomicon and just did a bunch of reading on Wikipedia about cryptanalysis, encryption etc. Just got me thinking, do you think cryptography and cryptanalysis plays a big part in current conflicts? Do you think the Taliban uses encryption anywhere near as sophisticated as a modern version of the German's Enigma machine? Are the world's foremost mathematicians working on codes from foreign powers or terror organisations? Or are they just using tried and true AES-style cyphers?

I find the information war really interesting, I'm just not sure how sophisticated current enemies of USA are. Unfortunately it's not something we will get a solid answer to for decades, but we can speculate.
 

Sea Moose

Diamond Member
May 12, 2009
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it is an interesting topic, but if movies have taught me anything, you need bruce willis and a kid with severe autism these days to solve those puzzles.
 

PlasmaBomb

Lifer
Nov 19, 2004
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Originally posted by: Sea Moose
it is an interesting topic, but if movies have taught me anything, you need bruce willis and a kid with severe autism these days to solve those puzzles.

:thumbsup:
 
Oct 27, 2007
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Originally posted by: Fox5
AFAIK, the most the Taliban use are simple ciphers.

But we don't really know, if they were using something more advanced we wouldn't know for years. People didn't know what was going on in Bletchley Park until nearly 30 years after the war.
 

Sea Moose

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May 12, 2009
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Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
Originally posted by: Fox5
AFAIK, the most the Taliban use are simple ciphers.

But we don't really know, if they were using something more advanced we wouldn't know for years. People didn't know what was going on in Bletchley Park until nearly 30 years after the war.

bletchy park? Isnt that where all the mauri teens hang out after dark?
 
Oct 27, 2007
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Originally posted by: her209
Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
Yeah, thanks douchebag. Like I said in the OP, no one knows the extent to which this is being done. That's why I asked "Do you think". You obviously don't.
What is there to think about?

Jesus Christ are you serious? I'm asking people, out of my own personal curiosity, to speculate on what sort of cool information war is happening right now.
 

paulney

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Sep 24, 2003
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GA, you don't know neither who Billy Mays nor who Farrah Fawcett are. Why would we want to share our deepest knowledge with a person like you?
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
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Originally posted by: paulney
GA, you don't know neither who Billy Mays nor who Farrah Fawcett are. Why would we want to share our deepest knowledge with a person like you?

Billy Mays? No idea. Farrah is someone, who if buried in Wisconsin, would be voted most likely to be dug up.
 
Oct 27, 2007
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Originally posted by: paulney
GA, you don't know neither who Billy Mays nor who Farrah Fawcett are. Why would we want to share our deepest knowledge with a person like you?

I have no friends and therefore no one to share secrets with. It's a perfect security.
 

smack Down

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
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I would guess no to advanced crypto for the simple reason that encrypting messages sent via donkeys is to much effort.
 

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
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The simplest method, one time pads, are nearly impossible to break and almost free to make and use.
So, I doubt that terrorists would use encryption, unless they were very stupid.
Though, I am sure some are stupid.

Hey, OP, are you thinking of offering your services?
And to which side?
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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I wouldn't be surprised to see some terrorists using high level encryption (at least the publicly available stuff), but by and large I doubt most, even in the upper echelons of the organizations, have the knowledge required to do so. Unless you want to extend terrorists to include say the government of Iran and other nations.
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
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It wouldn't take much to encode messages. All they have to have is a laptop with winrar installed and requires no real technical details.
type up the text, rar it up with password , rename it to something else like an dll file and toss it in the system directory.
Would be a pain to find, you would have to know where the file was, that it wasn't an dll file, then figure out what the extension is supposed to be, then figure out the cipher.

Easily doable in any part of the world.

 

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
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Its really simple for anybody to download a encryption program like truecrypt.
 

smack Down

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
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Originally posted by: Leros
Its really simple for anybody to download a encryption program like truecrypt.

I think the point of the question was for communications. Using encryption correctly for communications is much harder then storing a file on your desktop.

I would guess they use simple code words.
 
Dec 26, 2007
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Originally posted by: ironwing
The Taliban use PGP. Thanks a lot Philip Zimmermann. :|

Don't blame Zimmermann. Just because terrorists use PGP, doesn't mean PGP/Zimmerman is to blame. That's akin to saying, "Well, Ray Tomlinson created internet based email, so he's to blame for terrorist attacks." Do you believe guns should be banned because they are used to kill people? It's not the guns themselves that are the issue, but the people who use them to kill others.

Unless of course my sarcasm meter is broken.

Originally posted by: techs
The simplest method, one time pads, are nearly impossible to break and almost free to make and use.
So, I doubt that terrorists would use encryption, unless they were very stupid.
Though, I am sure some are stupid.

Hey, OP, are you thinking of offering your services?
And to which side?

AFAIK from what I've read, terrorists use the KISS method. They don't rely on complex ciphers/encryption/etc, but instead use keywords/phrases/etc more in plain text formats that make it next to impossible to decrypt without getting the keywords/phrases from the people who know them.