Classic Blunders
Extra Security Measures
  Stream of False Messages
  Regular Change of Key
  Fingerprinting Message
  Vigilant Effort to Break Strong Cryptosystem
  Surveillance of Own Encryption Habit
Glossary
     Security Aspects
Extra Security Measures


Stream of False Messages
Transmitting false messages could also help protecting genuine message that comes along with the traffic of invalid, intentionally misleading messages. This would make the job of a cryptanalyst more difficult as one would have to decrypt all the messages to distinguish a true cipher from false ones.

Regular Change of Key
Regular selection of key is most important to ensure that as long as the method is not broken, messages could still be relayed with some degree of security. The length of key, however, must be considerable when compared to the length of the message. Longer messages pose greater risk, hence it is best to cut them into smaller parts and encrypt these parts with separate keys.

Fingerprinting Messages
Use of a particular ‘fingerprint’ in genuine messages could be useful to tell apart a genuine cipher from one sent by unauthorised originator with intentions to deceive.

Vigilant Effort to Break Strong Cryptosystem
Cryptography experiences constant input of new methods being introduced. Sometimes, as fast as they could be invented, the enemy manages to decrypt these methods. It is therefore crucial for encryptors in government services that they design new ones and persist to break allegedly secure methods.

Surveillance of Own Encryption Habit
It must not be overlooked that the enemy must never be underrated. Generally, it is assumed that whatever party trying to intercept and decrypt messages know the class of methods of encryption used. It is therefore wise not to persist by a common ‘encryption philosophy.’

Copyright ©1999 ThinkQuest Team 27158 — Developed for ThinkQuest 1999