Just a thought on WikiLeaks, author Dan Brown and 256-bit encryption keys

Interesting how the WikiLeaks news . This from The Washington Post article, from Anthony Faiola

"Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks Web site whose release of sensitive U.S. documents on the Internet has generated outrage and embarrassment in official circles, was denied bail Tuesday after he was arrested by British police on a Swedish warrant for alleged sex crimes.

"In a warning to Swedish and U.S. authorities, however, Stephens said this weekend that his client was prepared to retaliate if charged. He said Assange might release the secret code - with a 256-bit encryption key - of a massive file quietly distributed this summer that contains thousands of unredacted documents."

These references to a 256-bit encryption key reminded me of Dan Brown's novel, Digital Fortress.  You can read a synopsis on Wikipedia. This on the long 256-bit key from the article:

"The brute force search used by TRANSLTR takes twice as long for each extra bit added to the key (if this is done sensibly), so the reaction of the industry has understandably been to lengthen the key. The Advanced Encryption Standard established in 2001 uses 128, 192 or 256 bits, which take at least 10²¹ times as long (i.e. 2⁷⁰) to solve by this technique."

 

Tags: Wikileaks, Security, what I read, Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Comments

• Anonymous
  December 21, 2010
  The arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been very controversial. I think at this stage it would be unwise to say whether he should have been arrested or not, though there are thousands of articles and blogs on this topic by now but the authenticity of their content is still under doubt. what I think is right now one must read a lot about Wikileaks and gather as much information as possible with different viewpoints and then only must form an opinion about the same. to add to the information read this interesting article about wikileaks www.identitysecurityandaccessblog.com